An imperial victim : Marie Louise, Archduchess of Austria, Empress of the French, Duchess of Parma

303

AN IMPERIAL VICTIM

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I

AN IMPERIAL VICTIM

c.

MARIE LOUISE

ARCHDUCHESS OF AUSTRIA

EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH

DUCHESS OF PARMA

By MRS. EDITH E. CUTHELL

Author of
Margravine of Eaireutb" etc. etc.

WITH THIRTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS, INCLUDING
TWO PHOTOGRAVURE FRONTISPIECES

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IN TWO VOLUMES f *t ^m^lf^ '-" '"'^

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LONDON
STANLEY PAUL & CO

31 ESSEX STREET W.C.

PRINTED BY

HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD.,'
LONDON AND AYLE3BURY.

" Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy "

TO THE MEMORY

OF

A TENDER HEART

A RULER BELOVED

A DEVOTED DAUGHTER

A FAITHFUL FRIEND J

A WRONGED WOMAN,

AS SINNED AGAINST AS SINNING

THIS
HER LIFE-STORY

Tout comprendre^ <?est tout pardonner

I

*CA

1

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. EARLY YEARS . . . . . .II

II. THE FIRST FLIGHT ..... 26

III. THE SECOND FLIGHT .... 42

IV. THE NET IS THROWN .... 52
V. THE FIRST SACRIFICE ... i 76

VI. THE MEETING ...... 94

vii. "THE AMAZING MARRIAGE " . . . 104

VIII. THE WEDDING TOUR. . . . Iiy

IX. THE BIRTH OF THE HEIR .... 136

X. HOME LIFE . . . . . • JS7

XI. THE APOGEE ...... 177

XII. THE RUMBLING OF THE STORM . . . 192

7

Contents

CHAPTER

PAGE

XIII. THE LULL . . , .- , . 2O8

XIV. THE FIRST REGENCY . .-* *"• . . " . 227

XV. THE LAST FAREWELL . . * 4 . 2CC

XVI. THE SECOND REGENCY . . . , 266

XVII. THE THIRD FLIGHT . 283

XVIII. IN THE CRUCIBLE ^OC

XIX. AT HOME ONCE MORE .... 329

XX. THE SECOND SACRIFICE .... 355

XXI. AN ILLICIT HONEYMOON? . . . 388

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

MARIE LOUISE, EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH, AND THE KING

or ROME . Frontispiece

PAGE

FRANCIS, FIRST EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA, FATHER OF MARIE

LOUISE 17

MARIA THERESA, EMPRESS OF AUSTRIA, MOTHER OF MARIE

LOUISE 35

MARIA BEATRIX LUDOVICA, EMPRESS OF AUSTRIA, STEP-MOTHER

OF MARIE LOUISE 53

PRINCE CLEMENT METTERNICH . . . . . • 71
THE ARCHDUCHESS MARIE LOUISE 89

MARRIAGE OF NAPOLEON I. AND MARIE LOUISE AT THE

TUILERIES 107

NAPOLEON AND MARIE LOUISE AT COMPIEGNE . . . 14!

MARIE LOUISE, EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH \ BY ISABEY . . 159

CHATEAU DE ST. CLOUD, MARIE LOUISE'S FAVOURITE FRENCH

HOME 193

NAPOLEON AND MARIE LOUISE .211

WARIE LOUISE, EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH ; BY BOSIO . , 245

9

io List of Illustrations

PAGE

LE ROI TE ROME ; BY SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE Y , . 263

STATUE OF MARIE LOUISE BY CANOVA . » * . . 297

CHATEAU DE RAMBOUILLET . . , , , . . 331

ALBERT ADAM, GRAF VON NEIPPERG . i : i\ '"^ " •' • 365

BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF SCHONBRUNN . . . . . . 383

AN IMPERIAL VICTIM

CHAPTER I

EARLY YEARS

MARIE LOUISE, born at the Hofburg, Vienna,
December 12, 1791, was the eldest and favourite
child of Franz II., the last Emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire and first Emperor of Austria. Her mother was
his first cousin, and the second of his four wives, Maria
Theresa, daughter of Ferdinand, King of the Two
Sicilies, and of Maria Carolina, daughter of the Empress
Maria Theresa, and sister to Marie Antoinette, Queen
of France, and the friend of Nelson's Emma, Lady
Hamilton.

The character of her father is the key to the life-story
of Marie Louise. Brought up in the habits of austere
discipline and of the passive obedience of the Princesses
of Hapsburg to the head of their house, she placed on a
pedestal, and worshipped with a pathetic adoration, blind
to any fault or failing, the " best of fathers," " the
greatest of the sovereigns of Europe " ; she loved him
with a fervid affection which was absolutely proof against
the cruel way in which he sacrificed her to politics. In
temperament, but not in character, she much resembled
him.

Franz II. was the son of the Kaiser Leopold II., and
was born at Florence in 1768, when his father was Grand-
it

12 An Imperial Victim

Duke of Tuscany, then an Austrian apanage. His mother
was the weak Maria Ludovica of Spain ; Franz was Italian
and Spanish rather than Austrian, and spent his first
sixteen years in Italy.

His uncle, the enlightened Kaiser Joseph II., had no
children, and Leopold was his heir. So, when approach-
ing man's estate, Franz was sent for to be brought up
at Vienna. He was the weak, spoilt darling of a feeble
mother, and since the age of four had been under the
charge of the elderly Count Colloredo, oberhof minister^
of an old Bohemian family. His tutors were Baron
Schloisnig and the Jesuit Abb£ Diesbach. He was
educated — if education it was, for any intellect he pos-
sessed was never developed, and in after-life he himself
said, " Knowing too much makes one's head ache " — in
the most futile manner. The Archduke and his tutors,
lodged at the Hofburg in apartments above those of the
Kaiser, used to occupy themselves in making birdcages,
varnishing sealing-wax boxes, and decorating furniture,
and would play at blind-man's buff among the chairs and
tables over the Kaiser's head. At nineteen he was
married to Elizabeth, Princess of Wiirtemberg. In 1788
he went to the Turkish War, but the only risk he ran
was when his carriage was upset in the panic of Lugos ;
the following year, with the " Austrian army awfully
arrayed," he went to the siege of Belgrade.

Elizabeth died after two years of marriage, childless ;
and six months later Franz married his cousin of Naples,
exceedingly lively and southern, but even worse educated
than himself. Maria Theresa was fond of painting and
music, and Franz played the bass-viol in the amateur
concerts in which she took part. She soon acquired great
influence over her husband ; in her letters she signs
herself to him, " the Kaiser's tenderest and truest wife
and friend," Fifteen months after their marriage Marie

Early Years 13

Louise was born. The Queen of Naples, who possessed
something of her great Empress-mother's courage and
determination, wrote congratulating her premiere ten-
dresse, as she called her eldest daughter, for having been,
during her labour, " so sensible and brave, for uncontrolled
groans do not help pain, and cause those present sorrow
and disgust. One must put up with the evil for the
pleasure of being a mother." The Kaiserinn was subse-
quently as prolific as her mother and grandmother, bearing
to Franz, during the seventeen years of their married life,
nine children.

In 1792 Franz became Kaiser. His father had died
suddenly, and he hesitated to take up the crown. But
his confessor told him that " the government having been
laid upon him by God, he could be quite easy in his
conscience if he followed the counsel of the majority of
his ministers in everything " — advice he faithfully carried
out.

Franz II. 's was the last coronation of an Emperor of
Germany in the Romersaal at Frankfurt. More than
one evil omen was noticed in connection with it. During
the ceremony he removed the crown, which pressed upon
his brow ; his portrait filled the last remaining space in
the long line of Emperors ; at St. Stephen's Cathedral at
Vienna, his statue the last niche.

The French Revolution, and the murder of his uncle
and aunt, following so closely upon Franz's accession,
embittered him, warped his judgment, and stamped him
for life as a narrow absolutist. " The people ? " he once
exclaimed, " I know nothing of the people ! I know only
of subjects ! " To the professors of the University of
Pavia he said : " Know, gentlemen, that I do not desire
cultured men, nor studious ones, but I wish you to train
for me faithful subjects, devoted to me and my house."
In 1834 he had printed in a catechism for the use of

14 An Imperial Victim

schools at Milan: "How should subjects behave to
their rulers ? " " Like faithful slaves." " Why ? " " Be-
cause their ruler is their master and as such has power
over their property and lives." Referring to the Greek
War he remarked that <c mankind requires from time to
time a copious bleeding, otherwise its condition becomes
inflammatory, and then the delirium of liberalism breaks
out." His body-surgeon one day remarked : " Your
Majesty has a good constitution." " What do you say ? "
roared the Kaiser. " Never let me hear that word again !
Say robust health if you like. There is no such thing
as a good constitution. I have no constitution, and never
will have."

Franz always had an aversion for affairs. He would
turn pale at the mere mention of business. Once a
fortnight he attended a Council of State as a matter of'
form, and complained to his valet when he returned from
it how it had bored him. When the critical condition of
affairs at last compelled him to take a share in the
government, he attended chiefly to petty details, satisfying
his curiosity by reading secret reports, and interviewing
spies, while his ministers and their underlings saw to the
great affairs of State.

For the first year of his reign Franz left everything
to Colloredo and Schloisnig, whom Vienna dubbed " the
two Kaisers." Then Colloredo overthrew the latter,
because he was not of sufficient birth, and was dangerous
by reason of his superior learning, and so became Chan-
cellor and State Minister. The instrument employed was
a clever and lively young Frenchwoman, widow of a de
Poutet, captain of Hussars, killed in action, and born a
Ffolliott de Crenneville, of the lesser French nobility, but
who had had her descent improvised by the Flemish
Herald Reydaels back to a Count Ffolliot, of noble Irish
family.

Early Years 15

Madame de Poutet had been the friend of the State
Minister, Thugut, who recommended the clever widow
to Colloredo. The latter got her appointed aja, or
chief governess, to the Archduchess Marie Louise, in
succession to Countess Wrbna. In return, Poutet rid
Colloredo of Schloisnig by insinuating that the Empress
was dying of love for him — a most unfounded statement,
for Maria Theresa and Franz were always devotedly
attached to each other. A camarilla of ladies now
managed state affairs, the Empress, her mother, and
Madame de Poutet at the head. Talleyrand christened
them <£ the sovereigns of Vienna." Thugut was brought
into the cabinet, as Kaunitz was now in his dotage,
and acquired an ascendant over the Kaiser. In 1799
Madame de Poutet effected the great coup of marry-
ing Count Colloredo. She retained her post as aja
to the little Archduchess, occupying apartments in the
palace, where Colloredo was now comptroller, with
her little daughter Victoire de Poutet, who became
henceforth the companion and life-long friend of Marie
Louise.

Colloredo, Thugut, Cobenzel, Metternich — these were
the succession of chancellors and chief ministers who
spoke through Franz, inexpressive and callous, as through
a mask, all in their different lines. The ruler of thirty
millions of people, Franz thought himself a sort of
demi-god, and would never, as it is often the way with
weak natures, allow himself to be ruled if he knew it,
which made him so difficult to manage. Napoleon
said of him that he was " a child governed by his
ministers, a weak and false prince, and a good and
religious man, but a blockhead occupied only with botany
and gardening." He blamed his insincerity which made
him " the dupe of intriguers." Again : " I thought
the Emperor Francis a good man. I made a mistake :

1 6 An Imperial Victim

he is only a fool. Without doubt he has made him-
self the instrument of Metternich to ruin me." Lord
Holland called him u a ruler of some intelligence, but
of no heart and no justice." Hormayr said: "I
take upon myself to call him " one of the most cold-
hearted and selfish men that ever existed. He has
lived with the Empress Theresa in the most happy
union, but he bore the loss of the mother of his twelve
(sic) children with singular apathy.*'

Hoping in the great game of chance to recover power
and independence, Franz ever hankered for war. "No
one," says Schiller, " is more readily inclined for war
than spiritual princes and weak monarchs." Gentz,
Metternich's understrapper, speaks of the Emperor's
" absolute want of strength of character." Napoleon
said that his father-in-law was " always of the opinion of
the last person he had spoken to."

Franz was merciful as regards ordinary offences, but
political crimes he never condoned. "With respect to
granting pardons," he said of himself, "I am a very
bad Christian, but it goes against the grain with me."
His sentences were harsh, cruel, and calculated. Callous
and heartless, he was, to all intents and purposes, the
actual jailer of his dreaded dungeons of Spielberg, the
turnkey of Confalonieri and Silvio Pellico. He himself
kept a note-book of his political prisoners there — each
had a number — ordering their rations and their cover-
lids, denying them books to read, and setting traps for
them through their confessors. "By your intellects
you have sinned," he said, " by your intellects you shall
suffer." £

When the cholera raged in Vienna in 1831 the
Kaiser proclaimed by placards that it was "not infectious,"
and was believed. " He himself," says Count Mailath,
" spoke to me about it and expressed his satisfaction

By Sir Thomas Lawrence.

FRANCIS, FIRST EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA^
Father of Marie l^ouise.

Early Years 19

that the proclamation had sufficed entirely to change the
ideas of the Viennese/' However, Franz himself retired
to Schttnbrttnn.

He was judged differently by different people. Hor-
mayr calls him the " Emperor Tartuffe." He loved to
be considered the essence of good nature. His beloved
Wienerkinder consulted him about marriages and domes-
tic matters, for he was accessible and unostentatious,
gave assistance to anybody and everybody, walked freely
about his capital, and loved to crack jokes in the broad
Viennese he habitually spoke. In his will he left his
" love to his people.'* On Corpus Christi Day " Father
Franz/' the "people's Kaiser," might be seen walking
the streets in the religious procession, lighted taper in
hand. For him, in 1804, Haydn composed the Austrian
National Hymn.

His daughter's letters show that his wife and family
regarded him as the best and most beloved of husbands
and fathers. His family life resembled that of one
of his own Vienna 'bourgeois. In Marie Louise's child-
hood there were few court festivities and no society,
so to speak, in the Austrian capital. The numerous
Archdukes lived quietly and retired. The aristocracy
resided in the capitals of their provinces, or on their vast
estates, and rarely came to Vienna. The houses of the
foreign ambassadors were the only meeting-places. In
winter the Imperial family dwelt in the great gloomy pile
of the Hofburg in the heart of the walled city, surrounded
by narrow streets. In summer they moved to Schonbrttnn,
or Laxenburg, a few miles outside. Here the Kaiser
would indulge in his botanical and gardening tastes and
fill the finest greenhouses in Europe with the choicest
collections of plants and flowers from all over the world,
he himself attending to some of the most precious
specimens.
T f\

20 An Imperial Victim

Originally a hunting-box of the Kaiser Mathias, the
palace of SchQnbrilnn, as it now stands, was erected by
Maria Theresa in such haste that it was finished by torch-
light. Even in Marie Louise's days some of the rooms
were still draped in black since the death of the great
Empress's husband. Schtfnbrtinn lies on the right bank
of the sluggish Wien. The central gateway is flanked
either side by twe red marble obelisks surmounted by
Austrian spread-eagles. The cour cThonneur is like a
barrack square, but for the two fountains. Facing the
entrance is the grand pavilion flanked either side by
two buildings, forming projections ; all are orna-
mented with Doric columns. A horse-shoe stairs leads
to a massive doorway.

Behind lie eighteenth-century gardens, green hedges,
and white statues. Beyond, a group of Tritons and
sea-horses surround a central lawn whence winding
paths lead up through shrubberies to the Gloriette, arch
and colonnade, commanding a fine view of Vienna, the
Danube, and the high mountains beyond. On either side
the palace lie the greenhouses ; on the right were Franz's
zoological and botanical gardens, where each animal had
its sheltered habitat surrounded by appropriate trees and
flowers. The spring which gives the palace its name
lies hidden in the labyrinth, and a marble nymph drops
water from an urn into a shell. In the park of oaks,
elms, and beeches, with lakes, are deer and wild boar.
The park is public, and in summer is used for fetes, and
as a public play-place, by the Viennese.

The Kaiserinn Maria Theresa was always foremost
a wife, and then a mother. She accompanied the
Kaiser in his progresses through his wide domains,
and when at home occupied herself with the politic
he neglected. Marie Louise was brought up strictl]
by a strict mother, and somewhat repressed. Necessaril;

Early Years 21

left much to the care of her ajay the Countess Colloredo
soon gained a great influence over her, and also her
lasting affection, for Marie Louise always yearned for
sympathy and love. The Countess is always maman
in the child's letters to her friend Victoire, while her own
mother, the Kaiserinn, is ma mere. Marie Louise had no
sisters near her own age ; brothers intervened between her
and Leopoldine and Marie Clementine, whom she was
very fond of and petted. Victoire de Poutet was her only
friend and companion. One of her three waiting-women,
Stressler, was with her from the time she was two years
old till her marriage.

Save for an attack of smallpox, which, however, left
her scarcely marked, Marie Louise's childhood was
uneventful. Her notes to the Countess de Colloredo,
written " from one floor to th» next," give us glimpses
of a very simple home-life. They are sometimes rather
pathetic little notes, and set one thinking what happier
things a more retired life might not have had in store
for the writer, had not fate raised her to such a position
of glare and glamour.

By nature a country child, Marie Louise inherited her
father's out-of-door tastes. Her early letters teem with
inquiries of the many pets : asking if the doves have be-
gun to build, if the pet hare will now eat out of one's hand,
and describing the capture and escape of a beautiful green
frog. Especially do they reveal her clinging, affectionate
nature, which explains much of her failings, for Marie
Louise had the defauts de ses qualitis. Wonderfully well
expressed they are for a child of eight, written in French,
with an occasional lapse into German when French fails ;
kind and feeling, too, as when the Countess loses her
father ; penitent, when she has been naughty and implores
forgiveness from her dear Colloredo, to whom she often
signs herself, " yours for all my life." When a baby

22 An Imperial Victim

comes to the Colloredo household she embroiders it a
little frock ; another time she makes her dear Countess
a scarf.

At the age of ten begin the letters to Victoire de
Poutet. Marie Louise's education was proceeding apace,
and she must have been a quick child, for they are written
in a mixture of French, German, Italian, and English,
and sometimes in a secret language — French written back-
wards, and a private cypher known only to the two
little confidantes ; even a word or two of Latin appears
and Turkish occasionally slips in. Riedler taught her
logic and Kotzbuch the piano, and, as became a German,
she was early proficient in needle-craft.

Marie Louise accompanied her father and mother
when they went into residence in their Hungarian capital,
and scrawling — so much that maman threatens to stop
the correspondence — she describes <c how fine papa looked
upon his throne " at the opening of the Diet at Pressburg,
and the splendour of the state ball. More to her liking,
however, was the country life and rambles, the Kaiser's
hunting in the Altenburg, and the fishing for cray-fish she
herself was allowed to indulge in with him.

When back again in Vienna at the palace of Laxen-
burg, she enjoys the sledging. The Queen of Naples,
driven from her throne by Napoleon, had arrived at her
daughter's Court. The stirring events now taking place
in Europe, and the society of her grandmother, made an
impression upon Marie Louise. Though only eleven, we
find her taking an interest in the foreign newspapers
which the ladies-in-waiting take in, and learn her first
views on Bonaparte.

" Maman has made me note the title of a book that
she is sending for to France, and which she thinks will
for us. It is the ' Plutarch for Youth ' by the sarru
Blanchard who has written the two books we have alread1

Early Years 23

read, the lives of illustrious men from Homer to Bona-
parte. This latter name tarnishes his work, and I wish
that he had rather ended it with Franz II., who has done
some remarkable things in restoring the Theresianum,
etc., whereas the other has only committed injustices in
taking some people's countries away from them. Maman
has told me just now about an odd thing : that M. Bona-
parte, when he was in Egypt, ran away, when all the army
was ruined, with only two or three persons, and became a
Turk ; that is to say, he told them, { I am not your enemy,
I am a Mussulman, I acknowledge your prophet, the
great Mahomet,' and then, on returning to France, he
posed as a Catholic, being really one, and then only was
he raised to the dignity of a Consul. ... It is not for
me to judge, but I think it is profaning our holy religion
to say that one belongs to another, because in the Creed
it is said one must confess one's faith."

There was bitter feeling in the nursery at Schonbriinn
against Napoleon. One of the favourite games of Marie
Louise and her brothers and sisters consisted in arranging
a little company of toy soldiers to represent the French
army, at the head of which they put the ugliest, which
they stabbed with pins and abused as personifying the
First Consul.

Marie Louise was not lacking in a sense of humour.
For she retails amusing anecdotes to Victoire de Poutet
out of a new book she is reading, as, for example, one of
the Duke of Berry put under arrest by Louis XIV.
because he would not learn his lessons. His tutor shut
the shutters, remarking that a prisoner must not see the
light of day. " You are quite right," replied the Prince,
"the sight of it is as disagreeable to me as is the sight
of you ! "

In Advent came Marie Louise's confirmation and
first communion. A temporary separation between the

24 An Imperial Victim

two little friends brought forth the following letter, which
shows the more serious side of her character.

" Here we are separated for some time. It will seem
longer to me without you, but I must prepare myself
for this solemn step which I am about to take, and
on which will depend our future happiness. At that
moment I shall pray God to grant you a long life,
and to bless you, and above all that He may not separate
us, and I shall pray also that He will give health to our
dear maman ; she is so precious to us all and most of
all to me, because if I were alone, without this help to
my soul — O God ! I cannot think of it without
shivering — how many false steps should I not make
without this support ! . . . Maman will communicate
with me, which redoubles my ardour. To-morrow at
this hour I shall already have made my first communion,
and, with the help of God, made it properly, and in
the evening you will read and play with me. ... I am
well, though it is very cold ; I kiss you a thousand times
and am for life your attached and affectionate friend,

" LOUISE."

A postscript throws a sidelight on the restrained
relations between the Empress and her little daughter.
" Our maman told me she would take up to-day my
apologies to my mother that I might ask her forgiveness.
This gives me great joy. It would be greater if she
would embrace me, but I dare not hope to attain that
favour."

Marie Louise now knew a little of nine languages
and insisted on Victoire replying to her letters in them.
Though a present of four green frogs could still give
delight, yet she weeps tears over the good Kaiser Joseph's
death-bed letters. At the same time she enjoys the

Early Years 25

theatre, criticizing the plays, but yet looks eagerly for-
ward to a little Epiphany party of nine children in the
garden which the Countess Colloredo was arranging.
It was a great success, and a list of the presents was
sent to Victoire. The Kaiserinn came in and chatted
for a few minutes, and then the children went into the
chapel to see a c< really magnificent creche" representing
Christmastidc sacred events, such as is still arranged at
this season in Roman Catholic churches. There were
carriages trotting, a " grandissimo cascade," as wide as
Victoire's reticule ; the three kings and their suites
marching, a mill which turned, a fountain, a canal, a
fisherman drawing his net, a hermit ringing his bell, a
man sawing wood, and two swinging. So much for early
nineteenth-century sacred art !

The entertainment concluded with the cutting of
the Twelfth cake c< in papa's library," the finding of the
treasures it contained, the choosing of the King and
Queen — a pretty glimpse of " the best of fathers " in
the bosom of his family, and of the happy home-life so
soon to be broken up.

CHAPTER II

THE FIRST FLIGHT

DARK indeed, both for herself and for her country,
was the close of Marie Louise's fourteenth
year. Austria, in the summer, had joined the third
coalition against Napoleon, with Russia and England.
Cobenzel had succeeded Thugut at the helm of the State
— frivolous, ugly Cobenzel who, when ambassador at
Petersburg, had been maitre de plaisirs and playwright
to Catherine. The astute Czarina, who had her own
forebodings as to the fate of Austria, told him :
" Your best play you will write when the French are
in Vienna ! "

Since the Peace of Luneville the Government was
retrograde and supine. Education was in the hands of
the priests, and a repressive press censorship had burnt
two thousand of Joseph II. 's books as dangerous. That
enlightened monarch's domestic reforms were in abeyance ;
the army in a deplorable state — many regiments existed
only on paper. There were bread-riots in Vienna and
street-fighting. Under such auspices began the Hundred
Days of 1805.

The Court, which is to say the Government, was
divided into two camps. For peace were Manfredini,
old Ligne, Thugut, who said that " Napoleon would
ruin the house of Hapsburg," Archduke Charles, "gentle,
amiable, the best captain in Austria," but short-sighted

26

The First Flight 27

as a politician, and grappling, against difficulties, with
army reorganization.

For war were Cobenzel, pointing out that all Napo-
leon's veterans were busy in Spain, Colloredo, the Kaiserinn,
dynastically anti-French, and the cream of the aristocracy,
headed by the intriguing Countess Poutet-Colloredo. The
war party won the day.

In a few days Ney conquered the Tirol. " If the
Austrians remain in their position near Ulm," said Napo-
leon, " my work is soon done ! " On October 7 the
" weak and maudlin, wrong-headed " Mack capitulated,
and the way lay open to Vienna.

In the capital bewilderment and infatuation reigned.
The Kaiserinn had just returned from taking the baths
at Baden for her failing health, and a letter of Marie
Louise to her friend Victoire de Poutet, written two
days before the disaster at Ulm, shows how little the
approach of the dreaded conqueror was realized. " Five
hundred Hanoverians have deserted, and, I think, M.
Bonaparte, too ; but I am not sure, so don't repeat it ; "
and she goes on to chat of her presents and prizes. In
less than a month "M. Bonaparte" had put her to flight.

Vienna, commanded by old Prince Karl Auersperg,
"all but in his second childhood," was taken through a
stratagem by Lannes and Murat. The Kaiser went to
Olmutz, his family fled to Hungary. The Kaiserinn,
with little Leopoldine, went to her husband's headquarters,
" well in body, but not in soul." A pathetic series of
little notes from Marie Louise to her friend Victoire show
the hardships to which the children were exposed, and the
anxieties they suffered.

" From RIEGELSBRUNN, November 4.

"Only a little note from me for thee. It contains
that I love you with all my heart, and that we have
arrived in good health at this wretched inn."

28 An Imperial Victim

" KITSEE, November 4. Past eight o'clock.

" 1 am keeping my promise to write regularly. We
arrived at eight in good health, fine, but very cold
weather ; we dined at a poor inn. The first post is
Fisherment, the Pulverthurm, and Simmering is the
place where the Emperor Charles the Fifth had his
menagerie. The second post is Deutsch Altenburg, the
frontier between Austria and Hungary. The third
Riegelsbrunn, where we dined at the inn and remained
till half-past four. Then we went a little on foot. It
was the idea of kind maman (Countess Colloredo). Then
to Hamburg, thence to Kitsee, the last two posts very
long, but with a charming view, on one side the Danube,
the other the village and the mountains and an old
castle. We had a very good supper cooked by the
cooks of the Prince Esterhazy. My heart was heavy
at not saying good-bye to you, my kind, sweet Victoire ;
but it was the orders of your bonne maman^ and I have
to submit. Pray earnestly le bon Dieu to let us soon
go back to our parents. We are well, and I hope to
replace maman safe and sound in your arms. I kiss the
children ; a thousand remembrances to Madame Bertrand.
Write all the news, bad and good, and believe I shall
share it, oh ! my Victoire. . . . Supper has interrupted
me, and I am half asleep and must rise early to-morrow.
I kiss you a thousand and a thousand times, and, in spite
of all the troubles in the world, remain

" Your attached friend,

" LOUISE.'*

Probably unable to sleep from excitement and fatigue,
the poor child was writing again to her friend at one o'clock
in the morning, describing her little room, the view froi
the castle over the vast Hungarian plain, and inquirinj
anxiously if the Czar had come to her father's assistance.

The First Flight 29

Next afternoon saw the children hurried across the
marshy plain where three rivers join the Danube, to Raab,
and lodged in the Archbishop's palace, a striking, fortified
building of the Moslem times. Received with en-
thusiasm by the loyal Hungarians, Marie Louise made
her first effort to reply to addresses.

" RAAB, November 5, 1805.

" At every dinner and supper I will write you a little
word, if it is in my power. At half- past two we reached
Raab, after passing Regensdorf, Wieselbrunn, Hochstrasse,
and then to Raab to the sound of drums and the recep-
tion by twenty-five Hungarians, if no more. We are
here in the Bishop's house, surrounded by the Raab,
which here joins the Danube (sic). The Bilrgermeister
takes our notes. I do not know what I am writing. One
side the Countess and Marie yell, on the other my
brother Ferdinand, and on the third the servants make a
great Gemurmel, so that my head is in pieces. Adieu.
You leave to-day or to-morrow morning. I wish you as
happy a journey and as good horses."

But even the fortified palace was not deemed a safe
resting-place.

" Acs, at nine in the evening, November 5, 1805.

" Graf Esterhazy will bring you this letter. We
arrived half an hour ago, well, having dined at Raab,
whence I wrote to you by Schiego, when we left I spoke
to the deputations ; they shouted ' Vivat ! ' to my brother
and us. Each of us, we talked with the officers of the
guard, of the regiment Bucassowitz. Adieu ; I am lazy,
and won't write another word."

But she took up her pen again " before seven in the
morning. Maman writes by Graf Esterhazy. We are
very anxious at having had no news of you. Maman

30 An Imperial Victim

especially has not slept well. There is a pretty view here
and a superb garden. Yesterday all was lit up when we
arrived, and nine Hussars preceded us by order of Count
Esterhazy."

From here to Gran, along the bank of the Danube,
where the low spurs of the Bakonyer Wald break the
monotony of the Hungarian plain. On arriving at and on
leaving Gran, a large town, the richest Archbishopric in
Europe, the Imperial children were received by Hungarian
officers, and, much to their amusement, the Imperial
Cadet School, " little soldier boys," paraded before them.
Leaving Gran at seven in the morning, they safely reached
Buda-Pesth that afternoon. In three days after quitting
Vienna nearly three hundred miles had been covered by
the fugitives, and Maria Theresa's great-grandchildren
found a safe refuge in the capital of the " kingdom "
on the protection of which she had thrown herself in
similar dire straits.

For centuries the frontier fortress of Christendom
against the Turks, the old city of Buda stands on and
below the precipitous Blocksberg on the west bank of the
Danube. Pesth, across the river, hardly existed in Marie
Louise's day. The Imperial children were lodged in the
Royal Palace of the Palatine, or Viceroy of Hungary, their
uncle, on the Festing's rock, where are jealously guarded
the Hungarian regalia, including the famous gold circlet
crown. But though they were safe for the time being,
the hearts of Countess Colloredo and her young charges
were heavy.

" OPEN, November 7, 1805.

" To-day we are an Or/ und Stelle. We are uneasy,
and maman too, because we have received no letters. We
have arrived in good health at three at Buda, having
changed horses at Dobdobor and at WOreswar, leaving

The First Flight 31

Gran at seven in the morning. ... I heard that on
November 4, the day we left, the news came that the
French had been beaten at EfFerding (Essling?) two
leagues from Linz beyond Brannow. I have nice quarters
in the Palatine's house ; I was to have been lodging in
that of Esterhazy, but there were £ ructions/ out of which
I came off splendidly — a bedroom with a magnificent
view, a charming drawing-room, and one for the footmen.
Maman is en suite with me, but not so nice. Madame
Wilrben makes a terrible to-do that my brothers Franz
and Josef have to sleep in one room alone, and that the
ladies' maids Dttrwald and GorOg have only a hole to sleep
in, and the others only holes. It is indeed true that
Baron Stefaneo and my brothers have only three rooms in
all." Victoire is upbraided for not writing ; probably,
owing to the panic in Vienna, her letters could not get
through. " Maman being tranquillized, would have slept
well had not her room been so cold."

Doubtless the climate in the old fortress above the
Danube in mid-November left something to be desired.
But the Countess wisely turned Marie Louise's attentions
from her present discomforts and anxieties by setting her
to begin Rollin's History. The good news of Massena's
repulse in Italy cheered the exiles ; the girl's natural
light-heartedness reasserted itself, and she gives Victoire
an amusing description of her brother's tutor, " the
charming Baron Stefaneo . . . pretty pink and white
face, especially when he quivers with rage, pretty fair
hair, with his green cloth cap with the black leather peak
braided in gold, green, red, and grey, wearing a cape and
mantle, walking delicately as if his limbs were of glass
and he feared to break them, and speaking agreeably a
mixture of German, French, and Italian." At Buda,
Countess Colloredo and the Baron — " an old woman,"

32 An Imperial Victim

the Kaiserinn called him — quarrelled ; the latter was very
angry over her u poor children " and a the upset."

A few days' blessed lull at Buda. But Napoleon had
entered Vienna only six days after the Imperial family
had quitted it, and the Hungarian capital was no longer
considered safe for them. Leaving her nice apartments,
with the Palatine's pleasant garden and the view of the
vessels in the broad stream so sheer below, Marie Louise
was hurried towards the Galician frontier.

" HARSCHANY, November 13.

" We have arrived here in good health. Maman
says you must sleep here, the roads are too bad for one
to go any farther with one's own horses, or it will knock
them up. I am writing from the Posthouse. Maman
is very anxious about your papa, and if he is worse must
go to nurse him and be replaced. This would be terrible
for all, and especially for me."

Then the blow fell. For the first, but by no means
the last time, Marie Louise's happiness was sacrificed to
politics. u The intriguing Countess," as Napoleon called
her aja, used her young charge as a tool, and led her into
secret correspondence and intrigues. But Colloredo over-
reached herself. The Kaiserinn got wind of what was
going on. Of her daughter she said : " I shall ' give her
beans,' and punish her sharply " ; but she made the
conduct of the Countess, whom she had never liked, an
excuse for the dismissal of both the Colloredos. But it
was really her husband's downfall that brought about that
of the Countess. He could not speak of his leavii
without tears in his eyes. " What have I done ? "
asked the Archduchess Elizabeth, the Kaiser's aunt
u Kept all counsellors away from the Kaiser," was
reply. The Colloredos were exiled to their estates, ai
he, in bad health, only survived his downfall a year.

The First Flight 33

After the departure of the Countess Marie Louise
was seized upon by her mother," who looked into her
education. Not content with choosing her books, she
read to her in the evening till she was tired. Countess
i Faber was appointed aja to the Archduchess, and Count
Joseph Esterhazy comptroller.

These watched over her carefully, but the poor child's
heart was sore for the loss of her faithful friends, for,
!with her parents, of course, went Victoire. Some time
elapsed ere the Kaiserinn would even permit of a
i correspondence with the disgraced favourite. At length,
'from the royal free town of Kaschaaw on the Hernad,
•Marie Louise, parted from the father she adored, and
ifrom her oldest friends, and anxious about her mother's
|failing health, writes a pathetic letter to the Countess, with
lloving wishes and prayers for Victoire's name-day.

" I am trying to be as good as possible, my dear
maman, and Mde Faber will assure you so. I busy
myself very much and do not read, and never will read,
jany book except what maman gives me. I pray to God
jdaily, and on Sundays and feast-days we hear Mass.
Console yourself ; my consolation is that I may soon see
imy dear parents again and that God does all for our good.
>I hope the management of the estates and the education
|of Caroline will give you interests."

On November 2 came the crash of Austerlitz. Two
days later, accompanied only by one aide-de-camp, Franz,
|" with his usually piteous, but now more than ever
(decayed appearance," in person came to where Napoleon
bivouacked, surrounded by generals and courtiers.
Napoleon pardoned Franz ; Napoleon promised him
jpeace. But all that Franz remarked, in his broad
Viennese jargon, after this unpleasant meeting, was:
Now I've seen him, I can't bear him at all ! "

The Peace of Pressburg was the Kaiser's Christmas

34 An Imperial Victim

present to his people. By it Austria lost 28,000 square
miles of territory and 3,000,000 inhabitants. Six months
later, by a stroke of his pen, Franz had made an end
of the Holy Roman Empire, and styled himself only
Emperor of Austria.

It was a sad and lonely Christmas for his children,
lodged in the castle of Kaschaaw, belonging to their uncle
the Duke of Saxe-Teschau, though they had more
freedom than at Buda, pleasant walks in the picturesque
Hernad Valley, and the excitement of the passing through
of many Russian troops and the Czar himself. For
Christmas goes a sad little letter to Victoire :

" I hope we may soon see each other. God does all
for the best. Comfort maman. I will never forget you,
and will always remain the same to you. You will find
your father's estates very fine."

To her dear Countess she writes early in January :
" My Mamma has given me permission to write to you,
and I avail myself of it. This is my second letter.

" I assure you I pray night and morning for her who
has had the kindness to guide and train me for ten years
and whom I shall never forget, and I shall always be
grateful and devoted to her, and talk of her often with
my dear good mother. I will follow all the latter is so
kind as to tell me, and it shall be my sweetest duty and
I will never cause her any sorrow. She has kindly
written to me that she will send on to you my letters.
I am reading ' Plutarch for Youth/ by Rollin. By
way of work I have finished the famous corset I meant
for you and will send it to you, with Mamma's leave ;
a knitted lace for my dear Mamma, and a bell-rope, and
soon a purse. My health is good, and we go for a walk
whenever we can. Madame Faber and Count Joseph
Esterhazy take such care of me that it is impossible
to get ill. Please, I beg of you, tell Victoire not to

MARIA THERESA, EMPRESS OF AUSTRIA,
Mother of Marie I^ouise.

35

•V ;o =-•

•

The First Flight 37

38 An Imperial Victim

loss. They look very well. Leopoldine has grown since
the measles. How like my dear friend to have been so
anxious for Mamma ! I also was very worried ; that and
my journeyings here made me grow four inches. The
citizens received Papa with greatest joy and an emotion
which was touching, and hurrahs, as the best of sovereigns
deserves. I am lodged in my old quarters. I am also
writing to Victoire, and can well imagine how sad a
Carnaval she will spend. For myself, till the moment
yesterday when I had the happiness of seeing my parents
again, I have had no pleasures ; but that delight entirely
makes up for the want of them. Adieu. Write to me
every week at least ; I will do the same. Mamma will
kindly give me all your letters, and I will do the same."

Vienna, February 13, she writes gratefully for
letters :

" Yes, I repeat, I try to profit by the advice of my
dear mother, and to imitate the example she gives me.
I think of my dear governess and recall with gratitude
the care and advice you gave me during ten years. I
read much because you always recommended it as in-
structive and passing the time agreeably. After Rollin
I have now read Zimmermann's interesting journeys in \
Africa and the East Indies, in German. It would be good
of Victoire to tell me what she is reading. I have also
embroidered a portfolio for Papa, and I have begun
another piece of work. I will write to you about it later ;
it is a surprise for Mamma. In the evenings I knit a
petticoat. I see you surprised that impatient Louise has
begun such a long piece of work, but the idea that it is
for Mamma gives me courage. We are all well, but in
the city there is much sickness. I made my devotions
last week. What a fine thing you did for that Russian !

The First Flight 39

But for Victoire your modesty would have concealed it
from us. Forgive me if I scold you. Papa and Mamma
admired it as much as we did. Any details you give are
dear to me. I beg you to go on with them, all and
everything that concerns you interests me. . . . Je suis
pour toute la vie en vous priant de me repondre, chere
amie.

" Votre tres-attachee amie,

" LOUISE."

The next twelve * months were saddened by her
mother's failing health. The troubles of her adopted
country, the anxieties, the wanderings she had undergone,
broke Marie Theresa's gay, brave spirit. In February
1 807 she was expecting her ninth child, and she was only
thirty-four. Feeling unable any longer to watch closely
over Marie Louise, and, perhaps, with a presentiment
of her approaching end, the Kaiserinn, for the third
and last time, changed her aja. Countess Lazensky,
nee Falkenhagan, replaced Countess Faber. Marie Louise
became devoted to her, and it was a bitter wrench when,
as we shall see, immediately after her marriage, and when
actually on the road to France, French intrigues separated
them. Count Edling, an elderly man, became comp-
troller.

The Kaiserinn had arranged to go to the small, quiet
palace at Hintzendorf for her confinement ; the Kaiser
was in Hungary. With Marie Louise and a younger
daughter she was one day sitting in the Hofburg at
! Vienna, when the two girls, looking up, saw standing
behind their mother's chair — we have Marie Louise's
word for it — the dreaded White Lady, whose appearance
in the Imperial palaces presages death alike to Hapsburgs
and Hohenzollerns.

A few days before she was to go to Hintzendorf the

X

40 An Imperial Victim

Kaiserinn was suddenly seized with a chill, which
developed rapidly into inflammation of the lungs. The
baby was born prematurely, and lived but three days.
The Kaiser only returned less than a week before his wife
succumbed, on April 13, 1807.

Thus Marie Louise, just emerging from childhood,
was left motherless at an age when she most needed
maternal guidance, and a singularly devoted and affec-
tionate family circle was broken up.

Sad indeed was the outlook for Kaiser Franz and his
motherless children. Austria lay crushed in a numb
neutrality ; Napoleon, his yoke firmly fixed on Prussia
and South Germany, was turning his attention to con-
quering Spain, Portugal and Russia, was making and
unmaking kings. After the defeat of the Russians at
Friedland in the summer came the submission of the Czar,
the meeting of the two Emperors, their warm, though
short-lived friendship, and the Treaty of Tilsit left Austria
isolated and helpless.

The bereaved husband clung to the companionship
of his eldest girl, always his favourite daughter, and now
growing apace into womanhood, and tall for her age.
He took her with him on a little tour in Croatia. Here
was in construction the famous post-road begun five years
before and not completed till five years later. Passing
over the mountains from Ogulin to Fiume, a distance of
eighty-five miles, it rises to a height of 3,075 feet — byj
never more than ten inches in a yard — and is still one
of the most remarkable engineering feats over passes,
and forms the exit from Hungary to the sea. It was
constructed by the Franzcanal Joint Stock Company and
eventually named the Louisenstrasse.

The journey through the Banat — Croatia's Viceroy is
called the Ban — interested and amused Marie Louise,
" because/ ' she wrote to Victoire, " dear Papa instructed

I

The First Flight 41

me in many ways, though it was saddened by the familiar
scenes which only recalled the terrible loss of our dear
Mamma."

Other troubles followed. The delicate little brother
Joseph did not long survive his mother. " The only
comfort we have," writes Marie Louise, " is to think
that had he been cured of this painful disease, his life
would have been one continual suffering. He is happy
in having found in heaven our dear Mamma, whose death
still causes us much grief."

A week or two after his death an earthquake caused
great damage at Schonbrunn and to the Imperial gardens
at Laxenburg and in Hungary, casting a further gloom
over this sad year. Marie Louise's careless, happy child-
hood was indeed over.

CHAPTER III

THE SECOND FLIGHT

KAISER FRANZ was a devoted husband, yet he was
but a bad widower. Six months after his second
wife's death he contemplated matrimony for the third
time and became secretly engaged to the Archduchess
Maria Ludovica Beatrix of Este. She was the daughter
of Ferdinand, son of Kaiser Franz I. and of Maria Beatrix,
last of the Estes and the heiress of Modena. They
had been driven from their duchy by the French under
Napoleon, and took refuge first at Trieste. Her sister,
the Queen of Sardinia, had also been dispossessed of her
kingdom and exiled to Cagliari ; another sister, the
Electress Palatine, had seen her possessions cut up by
the conqueror. In 1805 the Estes came to Vienna,
where the Duke died next year, and his wife and
daughter lived much in retirement in the suburb of
Wienel Neustadt. Maria Ludovica Beatrix was now
twenty, small, spirituelle, dainty, and clever. All un-
known to herself, Marie Louise became the go-between
of her father and the attractive young Archduchess.
The Kaiser drew them together.

It was a love match. In August they were secretly
engaged, and Franz sent her his miniature set in dia-
monds in a bracelet. For her birthday in December
he sent her, by Marie Louise, a large basket containing
lace, a shawl, and some flowers, and a note inside. Th<

42

The Second Flight 43

unsuspecting daughter told her father how touched the
Archduchess seemed to be on reading the note. They
were married the next month.

This event brought about a great change in Marie
Louise's life. The new Kaiserinn at once took a quite
maternal charge of her step-daughters. " Our children
are well," she writes to her husband, " but Louise
is much altered. I cannot tell you how many proofs
of attachment she gives me." They dined with her,
and she amused them, Marie Louise playing the piano
while the others danced.

Into the Court at Vienna Maria Ludovica introduced
more pomp and dignity. Whereas Franz had hitherto
been popular as a bon bourgeois > he was now to beam and
dazzle as the Kaiser. A fete was given to the invalid
veterans who had never even beheld their ruler. As
a reward, not for gallantry in the field, or distinction
of birth, but for useful work, was instituted the Order
of Leopold, which was bestowed on all classes. The
aristocracy, which lived, or rather reigned, on their
vast estates or in provincial capitals, aloof and jealous
of their sovereign, were attracted to Vienna. The young
Kaiserinn instituted court balls, at which all who were
eligible were bound to appear, Aufwartung, in waiting,
not by invitation. These entertainments began at six
in the evening, and it was intimated that the guests were
not to retire till their Imperial hosts had withdrawn. At
these balls Marie Louise "came out." They were the only
court festivities in which she took part till she appeared,
the central figure, at those given for her marriage.
Leopoldine, her next and favourite sister, was only
fourteen, but of Cc an age," she writes, "when one begins
to be reasonable."

The new regime was doubtless much appreciated by
the young Archduchess. Her clever step-mother took

44 An Imperial Victim

the shy young girl by the hand, and soon won immense
influence over her, for weal and for woe. The new
gaiety of the Court appealed to her age and lighthearted-
ness. Weddings were the order of the day. That of
her father had been followed by others in the Imperial
family, and now another marriage, of European im-
portance, began to be whispered about.

" Since the divorce of Napoleon," writes Marie Louise
to Victoire de Poutet towards the end of January 1 809,
" I open each Gazette de Frankfort with the idea of finding
the nomination of the new bride, and I confess this always
causes me some involuntary anxiety. I place my fate
in the hands of Divine Providence, who alone knows
what can make us happy. But if ill-luck will have it, I
am ready to sacrifice my private happiness to the good of
the State, being convinced that one only finds real content-
ment in the doing of one's duty, even to the prejudice of
one's inclination. I will not think about it any more,
but, if necessary, I have made up my mind, though it
should necessitate a double and painful sacrifice ; pray
that it may not come to pass."

The court of Este, the patron of Tasso, had always
been artistic. To that of Vienna, the Kaiserinn Maria
Ludovica now imparted a cultivated and also a scientific
atmosphere. In music, indeed, Vienna was pre-eminent in
Europe. Mozart had raised it to a pinnacle till then
unknown, and Beethoven and " Papa Haydn " were still
alive and creating. But, though Austria had many
savants, they were of more account in Paris than in their
native land. The new Kaiserinn was also fond of read-
ing, and encouraged literature. Like Queen Louise of
Prussia, she admired Lafontaine's novels. It was this,
and her feelings for music and painting, that appealed to
Marie Louise, and formed a bond between them. In
her step-mother she found, at a most susceptible age,

The Second Flight 45

a combination of a mother and elder sister, far cleverer
than herself, and to her guidance, from inclination, as
well as from family feeling towards the wife of the
head of the house, Marie Louise committed herself.

The new Kaiserinn of Austria was a fierce antagonist
of Napoleon, as had been not only her predecessor, but
Queen Maria Theresa of Naples and Queen Louise
of Prussia. She ruled Franz and spurred him on to
war.

A grand tour throughout his diverse provinces under-
taken by the Kaiser and his beautiful young bride
fanned the faint flame of a rising patriotism. As the
green shoots of the young gorse and heather spring
bravely from among the blackened moors devastated by a
heath-fire, so Austrian national feeling began to spread
just when the heel of Napoleon seemed most firmly
stamped all over the continent of Europe. The great
aim of Stadion, now the State-Chancellor, was the libera-
tion of Germany. Patriotism, as now exhibited in Spain
and North Germany, animated both the Kaiser and all
classes.

In February 1809 a mysterious proclamation to the
people called the German Confederation to arms. Know-
ing the bulk of the French army busy in Spain, the
Archduke Charles, appointed Commander-in-Chief, in-
vaded Bavaria, the ally of France and ever the Naboth's
vineyard of Austria. But Napoleon raced across Europe,
defeated the Austrians at Eckmuhl and Landshut, and
the French entered Vienna for the second time only
twenty-seven days after Napoleon had left Paris.

The Kaiser was in the field, and his family had again
fled to Hungary — all but one. Marie Louise lay at the
Burg suffering from an indisposition which prevented her
for a few days from travelling. The city made a show
of resistance. Napoleon at 8 p.m. on May 10 ordered

46 An Imperial Victim

a bombardment. A few shells had fallen about the
streets when it was represented to him that the young
Archduchess still occupied the Burg. He gave orders
that it should be respected, and Marie Louise, for the
first, and not for the last time, probably realized that the
ogre was not so black as he was painted. Napoleon, on
the other hand, as he planned in the Kaiser's study at
SchCnbrUnn how to dislodge Archduke Charles, entrenched
just across the Danube, was surrounded by sketches done
by the young Archduchess. A portrait of the Kaiser's
favourite daughter — fair, young, and innocent — smiled
down upon him. He had decided upon divorcing
Josephine, and there were only two marriageable princesses
of reigning houses in Europe — Anne of Russia and Marie
Louise of Austria.

Napoleon was foiled at Essling by the Archduke
Charles, and Marie Louise, from her refuge in the fortress
palace at Buda, writes an enthusiastic if somewhat garbled
account of the victory to the Countess Colloredo, who
had again escaped to her estates.

"Though I believe that you receive all the news of
the army sooner than we do, I cannot help writing t
give you details of the issue of a battle which has been
for us most fortunate. On Saturday, 2ist, the French
army, with Napoleon at its head, crossed the Danube,
near Aspern, by four bridges, and made a terrible attack
upon us, in which we received a little check ; night
separated the combatants, and on the morning of the
22nd Napoleon, at the head of the cavalry, made a ne\d
attack and repulsed us again ; but at this moment Arch-
duke Charles harangued the grenadiers, seized the flag
in his hand, and, after having got off his horse, led them
thus against the French, who took flight and abandoned
Napoleon, who shouted to them that he would have them
burnt along with the bridge, and killed with his own

)i

;

The Second Flight 47

hand two of his generals. On which they returned
to the attack, but in vain ; fortune had forsaken them,
they were completely beaten. The next day they made
even a stronger attack, but with as little success, so that
they retreated and threw themselves into the island of
Lobau. It is the first time that Napoleon has been
beaten in person. He has lost 22,000 men, and 16,000
wounded have been carried into Vienna. Lannes has
been killed, Bessieres has disappeared, Doronnel (sic)
Espagne (sic) are prisoners, 46 guns, 1,500 men taken
are the fruits of this day's work. We have only lost a
few in proportion to his loss ; but we have fourteen or
fifteen generals wounded, of whom only two dangerously;
but many colonels and officers killed. Archduke Charles
was in such danger that all his aides-de-camp are wounded
and his orderlies killed. They say Papa kept shouting :
See if my brother is still alive ! ' May God preserve
this excellent father, who also exposed himself many times,
which made me shudder when I was told of it."

When walking in the Oreczy gardens at Buda, Marie
Louise looked down on the bloated corpses of the French
slain at Essling floating down the clear green stream
of the swift Danube below. Though occupied with
consoling her ailing step-mother, busying herself with
lessons — Italian and drawing — yet her anxiety for the
father to whom she was so pathetically devoted, of
whom so blindly proud, was intense. Sadly she writes
to Countess Colloredo :

" Take care of yourself and do not be anxious about
the present state of affairs. I assure you that I am
already hardened to stone, so much have I suffered over
the war — the loss of brothers, sisters, mother. It seems
as if our family were not made for happiness, and yet
Papa has so well deserved it. One must hope that
God, who is just, reserves for him a reward, and then,

4 8 An Imperial Victim

as Mamma said, life is so short in comparison with
eternity that it is easy to bear reverses. I am very
grateful for the news you have kindly given me from
Pressburg, Vienna, and the army, and I beg you to
continue to do so. As I hear that this letter passes on
the other side of the Danube, and that it is almost
impossible that it should fall into the hands of the French,
as I have hitherto feared, I am going to tell you what
we know, venturing to count on your discretion. Papa
and the Archduke Charles are still at Wolkersdorf, which
I think very prudent, for he who has his back to the
Danube has always the disadvantage. . . . We have also
had news from Vienna, and among it some which gave me
great pleasure : it is that the French officers have received
the order to take off the badge of the Order of St. Andrew
and not to wear it any more : which is a good sign for us,
and perhaps a sweet illusion that I have ; but at least the
Russians have not moved for six weeks, and remain on
the frontier. I fear if our affairs go badly they will turn
to the northward, especially as Caulaincourt has an
absolute influence over the Emperor Alexander. I am
very grateful to you for sharing my anxiety about Papa.
It is more to be feared that he should risk himself too
much than the contrary. The mere thought makes me
shudder. Let us pray to God that He will preserve him for
long years. We had to-day excellent news of his health,
he only leaves Wolkersdorf to visit the hospitals which
are in the country, which has so touched the French
wounded that they have promised him not to fight
against him any more. My one wish would be to see
my father again, but as the good of the country depends
on this separation, I gladly deprive myself of it. On the
other hand we have very bad news : my uncle John hi
left his position at Guns to try and join the Palatine,
which was an excellent plan ; but Eugene, who was at

The Second Flight 49

Stein-am-Auger, warned by his spies of this move, came
and attacked him. Only think ! the bombardment has
lasted three days, and no one knows anything for certain
yet. I fear that my uncle, who has only 20,000 men and
who is so brave and enterprising, will, of course, not
retreat, and that in that case he will be entirely destroyed
or dispersed. You have no idea how much I suffer in
this uncertainty, all the more as the news has just come
that the Viceroy wishes to get past the Archduke, that
he is trying to reach Papa in order to strike the in-
surrection in the flank or the back, and that it is almost
impossible for the Archduke, even with a forced march, to
arrive there before him. The enemy may be here in a
day. Of course at this news we leave at once, for it would
not be unpleasant to them to effect the capture of the
whole Imperial family, which would be worth at least as
much to them as a country.''

She was longing to see her father again, fearful lest
the procrastinating Czar should join Napoleon, distraught
by news of a three days' cannonade near Vienna. She
heard that her uncle Charles could not stir to put down
the Polish insurrection, and terrible rumours reached
her of the atrocities committed by the French in the
country districts, and of the Turks under the French doing
much damage. She begs the Countess to fly to a town,
but not where the Poles are likely to make a raid. Marie
Louise was worn out with anxiety, and fainted away
when the doctor merely suggested bleeding the sick
Kaiserinn.

Archduke John, who had come up with his army
from Italy, was making every effort to join his brother.
tcl wish," writes Marie Louise, " that uncle John and
his army of the insurrection would deliver Vienna. I
should then be so happy ; it would be a balsam for all
the afflictions my father has suffered, and his mind

50 An Imperial Victim

would find in it its best reward." But John was closely
pursued and molested by the Viceroy. His defeat at
Raab and the fall of that town enabled Eugene to join
Napoleon. This defeat rendered Buda no longer a
safe refuge for the Imperial family. " The enemy may
be here in a few days," writes Marie Louise, and they fled
farther into Hungary, where that loyal people had risen
in insurrection under the Archduke Rainer. The old
walled town of Erlau, commanded by a castle which
had often endured the siege of Turk and of Christian,
offered a temporary refuge for Marie Louise and Leo-
poldine ; the other brothers and sisters had safely
reached Cracow. c< We fled here on the defeat of
uncle John," she writes, and Erlau " seems what
Siberia is to the Russians. ... I am living in continual
anxiety, and I dare not trust any news. . . . We are
relegated here, hearing no news from the rest of the
world of what interests us, and which takes centuries to
reach us. What we miss most is books. I had brought
some from Buda. . . . The Empress is ill, but had a
play and a reception, to keep up our spirits." Press-
burg had been bombarded. " The Emperor was there,
and that was why it was done." He had a narrow
escape, a shell having passed through his room ; aa
night of agony till news came from him."

" I wish," she writes to the Countess, " that your
prophecy may be realized ; and that the house of
Austria may rise from the decadence into which it is
plunged1; but I do not know what secret instinct makes
me doubt it, and I have been several times ready to
believe that we are nearing the end of the world and
that he who oppresses us is the Antichrist."

The Archduchesses were very uncomfortable at Erlau.
Marie Louise's women had one big room, she herself
a panelled one where she slept and lived all day, "for

The Second Flight 51

all furniture a table where I work, write, and draw, and
another that the Countess drags everywhere with her,
a bath, two torn sofas and four chairs all full of horrid
bugs ; and Leopoldine has the same." But the girls
found pretty walks in the neighbourhood.

Thus, in tension, the sky blackening overhead, passed
June. With July came the thunderclap of Wagram, and
old " Father Haydn " passed away while the French
guns were firing, playing his " Long live Franz, the
Kaiser ! "

CHAPTER IV

THE NET IS THROWN

FOR the third time Napoleon was master of the fat<
of Austria. British support had failed her
Prussia proved a broken reed ; Russia was on hei
eastern frontier ; the Poles occupied Bohemia. Austria
was pressed all round. Yet, within a week of the victory
of Wagram, Napoleon granted an armistice. Was it a
simple act of generosity, or had he an ulterior motive ?

The French armies remained in the positions they hac
won, Napoleon returned to Schonbrttnn, and a congress
gathered at the village of Altenburg to discuss terms
of peace. Count Metternich, who was^Austrian ambas-
sador at Paris, was brought back to Vienna by French1
gendarmes to represent his country.

The negotiations at Altenburg preliminary to the
Peace of Vienna are enveloped in a mystery greater
than that which usually surrounds such parleyings.
Never was a congress less independent, never did one
discuss less. Every clause was referred to Schonbriinn.
The Austrian delegates came in daily to lunch wii
Napoleon and then returned to Komorn, where tl
Kaiser had his headquarters. The latter shilly-shallu
for a week, arousing the victor's scorn. " If there w<
but an Emperor on whose good faith I could rely,'
said to Metternich, " I would make the whole monarcl
Austrian and cut off nothing. But the Emperor Fran<

5*

MARIA BEATRIX LUDOVICA, EMPRESS OF AUSTRIA,
Step-mother of Marie Ixmise.

53

The Net is Thrown 55

is always of the opinion of the last man who has talked
to him. . . . If he would abdicate in favour of the Grand-
Duke of Wiirzburg I would cut off nothing."

Bausset, comptroller of Napoleon's household, closely
watching the faces of his master and his guests during
these luncheons at Schonbrunn, fancied he had discovered
the secret of these mysterious confabs. It appeared to him
that no serious diplomatic questions were afoot or were
discussed. Daily the delegates became more harmonious
and seemed to come to a better understanding. Napo-
leon was gracious and full of politeness. He evidently
wished to make a good impression and to show off his
manners and his person to best advantage. Only one
day was he irritated, telling the Prince of Neufchatel
afterwards that he would send for the Duke of Wiirzburg
and give him the crown of Austria. Napoleon was no
longer the same man who, in a fit of insolent bravado,
had contemptuously shattered the Dresden vase at
Cobenzel's feet at the Campo Formio conference. Despite
the presence in a snug nest in a suburb of the Emperor's
beloved and loving Countess Walewska, astute Bausset
considered, rightly or not, that he divined in Napoleon's
attitude his dawning project of a marriage with the
Kaiser Franz's eldest daughter.

The latter was still at Erlau, very uncomfortable
and almost afraid to write to her friend Victoire Poutet
c< for fear of letters falling into the hands of the French,
like Grandmamma's [the Queen of Naples], whose letters
to Aunt Toto had all appeared in the Moniteur" but
altered, Marie Louise surmised, " as they only contained
abuse of Napoleon, which certainly Grandmamma would
not have written." Rumours false and true reached her,
of Metternich being nearly captured as he came from
Paris, of loss of friends and relations, of the outrages of
the French " who will draw down the curse of Heaven

56 An Imperial Victim

upon them by their cruelty and sacrilege/' Intermixed
was news of Italian operas at Vienna, Talma and Crescen- \
tini performing, while the Imperial riding-school and
the salles de redoutes were turned into hospitals
for the wounded, and were full. Then, in the midst of
this troubled exile, came Leopoldine's first communion, \
" the great day of her life," writes her dearest sister.
" Mamma is preparing her for it." The Kaiserinn was
now sending to Cracow for the other brothers and sisters,
and the baggage, as so many things were missed at \
Erlau, " especially books, and uncle Rudolph has only
one coat."

When the truce was granted the Empress rejoined
the Emperor, whom Marie bewails not having seen for
four months. But lessons, especially those of French, and
the clavecin, " to break one's fingers," were interrupted by
the solemnities of Leopoldine's first communion.

In August better news came from Spain to Erlau.
The Spaniards, she heard, had taken Madrid, and Soult
had capitulated with 16,000 men (sic). Marie Louise
hastened to pass it on to her friend, together with
accounts of the life at Schonbriinn of the ogre, who, it
was reported, had only once dared to show himself in
Vienna, driving through it at a gallop. While there
were theatricals at Schftnbrunn, she wrote, and a French
company at the Court Theatre, all the city — convents,
hospitals, and even the Burg Schloss — were crowded
with wounded, some 69,000, including no less than
thirty-five generals.

Bubna had been sent to compliment Napoleon on
his name-day. Marie Louise is glad " Mamma is not
at Erlau, for I am sure if he [Napoleon] had also out of
politeness complimented Mamma for her name-day . . I
rage would eat me up if I had to dine with one of his
marshals. ... I wish I could, like you, keep silence all

The Net is Thrown 57

my life on politics, for I hear enough, and even too much,
on this matter during this summer. My heart forms
wishes that my wish may be realized ; but I have suffered
too much to expect such bliss."

The terror and horror of the ogre was increasing.
She hopes the congress to discuss peace " will take place
far from the place where Mamma and I am staying, for
I should otherwise fear a visit, and I assure you to this
person it would be a torture even worse than all the
martyrs, and I do not know if it would not enter his head.
He makes war, real war, after the manner of the Huns."

Then came rumours of peace. Austria was to pay
200,000,000 thalers and to keep her territories. Burying
herself "in her little room in order not to fall a prey
to sad thoughts," the unconscious object of Napoleon's
designs, reads " Esther," "Athalie," " Iphigdnie." "I
find the second the best. If you have insomnia," she
adds, with a glint of fun, " read the c Familiengemalde '
of Lafontaine. I do not know a novel more fade"''
Marie Louise evidently did not share the admiration of
her step-mother and of Queen Louise of Prussia for the
then fashionable novelist.

Though pleased and grateful for the pleasant enter-
tainments provided at Erlau for the Imperial children —
fishing and tea-parties, illuminations on Marie Louise's
name-day — by her step-uncle the Archbishop, and
developing a " real passion for Hungary, with its har-
monious language, and touched by the way they treat
us," she remained a true Wiener kind and was desperately
homesick. " My heart yearns for Vienna, the abode of
my happy childhood. I am drawn towards it. Every-
thing that comes from thence causes me such a sweet
joy, and, though I am no mineralogist, I have bought
a piece of stone that they have brought me, and which
is a little piece of the pavement of that dear town."

5 8 An Imperial Victim

Marie Louise's love of her native city never left her
all her life. Now, as ever, music was a great solace
and interest. "I sing a great deal with Wiesenthal,
which procures for me very pleasant evenings ; nothing
is finer than to hear Count Edling sing : c Che faro
senza Eurydice.' I wish you could hear him."

The peace conference was moved to Vienna. "Every
one," writes Marie Louise, ccis being entertained at the
expense of poor Papa." There were illuminations to
celebrate Napoleon's fete-day, " but others," she adds,
cc show their attachment to their sovereign, as, c Es lebe
der Kaiser,' without saying which," and again :

O Napoleon, wie gross is Dein Glanz !
Lass uns aber unsern lieber Kaiser Franz.

To while away the dreary waiting at Erlau, she
composed variations and waltzes. Kotzbuch, her music-
master, had had a son wounded and she missed his
lessons. On Sundays she gave lessons on the clavecin
to Leopoldine ; she sang with Wiesenthal, and had a
logic-master. Early in September the Primate, her
uncle, the Kaiserinn's brother, died of typhoid caught
in the hospitals. " Happily, Mamma was ill and could
not nurse him." She tells Victoire how the hospitals
are full of court employes, chiefly stablemen ; how
none of the proud Viennese aristocracy go to the
opera, produced with such eclat by the conqueror, who,
however, had reinforced his garrison and commandeered
the Archbishop's plate and wine. But there were grains
of comfort. The English were disembarking and making
raids in Germany and at Naples ; affairs in Spain were
going badly for the French. Later, a most affectionate
letter from the homesick exile to the Countess Colloredo,
who had ventured to return to Vienna, braves the dangers
of intercepted communications.

The Net is Thrown 59

But the attempt by the Ravaillac of German liberty
upon the conqueror's life at a review at SchOnbrttnn
opened Napoleon's eyes to the hatred with which he
was regarded in Germany. Now he would be trifled
with no longer, and he sent an ultimatum to the Kaiser.
The latter, in his extremity, turned to his old minister
Thugut, now living in retirement. " Make peace at any
price," was the far-seeing reply. "The existence of the
Austrian monarchy is at stake ; the dissolution of the
French Empire not far off."

But the price of peace was not that contemplated
by the veteran statesman. It was not only the loss of
50,000 square miles, and of 4,000,000 inhabitants — it
was also Marie Louise.

The Peace of Vienna was signed on October 14 ; a
Te Deum at St. Stephen's was attended by the officials
of the city. On the 2yth Napoleon was back at Fontaine-
bleau, and a Te Deum was sung at Notre Dame. It was
Josephine's last public appearance. The plot was thicken-
ing, the meshes being tightened.

Marie Louise rejoined her step-mother at Bicska.
The latter had felt very much the death of her brother,
the Primate of Hungary. She was ill : " If the doctors
could make out her illness they would be very clever.
One day she is so weak she cannot walk two steps without
fainting," writes Marie Louise; "next day she dances a
reel which lasts an hour and a half."

At last, after a separation of months, Marie Louise
had seen the " best of fathers," at Bicska. " Think,"
she writes to Victoire de Poutet : " he did not know
that I was coming, and I had no idea of his arrival,
so my happiness was complete. He must have found me
very silly, for instead of answering him I began to cry.
The shock had so bereft me of speech, and all our past
sufferings came back to me when I saw him." Any

60 An Imperial Victim

return to the Burg Schloss at Vienna was out of the
question for the Imperial family till the spring, for she
writes that it had to be thoroughly cleaned after so
much illness in it. At Buda life was sad enough, the
town full of 1 5,000 soldiers and u one meets carts full
of dead ones." Her uncle the Palatine, probably anxious
to give the girl a fresh distraction after so much worry,
induced her to take up oil-painting. She made a sketch
of the burial-place of the Palatines of Hungary — <c a
cave, with a chapel below, between arid hills, and which
is in charge of a Russian Pope, who cultivates the garden
round." She was tempted also to try a portrait, that
of Count Edling, the delightful singer. " I hear you
maliciously suggest," she writes to Victoire, <c that the
original is not handsome, but it is just in le laid that
one can well study the art of portraiture."

The anxiety of the winter had shattered the Kaiserinn's
nerves. In order to distract her, Marie Louise made
music every evening with her uncles, besides practising
an hour or more daily, studying sonatas, and she begs her
friend to send her some of her music from Kotzbuch's,
any she likes, and to buy her Yadin's " Duo pour deux
Pianofortes, dedie a Madame Bonaparte." " I think this
latter name will prevent you sending it me, but, in spite
of the dedication, I cannot help finding the composition
charming."

She longed to see the Kaiser's entry into Vienna, "and
all the marks of attachment to their good sovereign, who
deserves them so much." Napoleon, at Fontainebleau,
heard of Francis's enthusiastic reception. a What a
people ! " he exclaimed. " If I re-entered Paris, I should
not be received in that manner ! " From afar the devoted
daughter regrets that she could not mingle her tears with
those of the good Viennese. " I assure you that, if I was
only a private person, I should be proud of being an

The Net is Thrown 61

Austrian, for they are certainly the people who come first
in their devotion to their sovereign. In reading your
description I felt very sad in thinking that I could not

1 share the happiness of the Viennese, and, at the same
time, be at the feet of the best of fathers."

A sad Christmas for Marie Louise at Buda. Separated
from her father, she was very anxious about her step-

! mother's health. There was a large family party at Buda,
and peace and intimacy — six young uncles and step-uncles
under thirty, little dances, duets on two pianos, painting
lessons in portraiture and landscape for Marie Louise,
an accompanying by the latter of the Kaiserinn's brother

I Francesco's songs on the clavecin.

Maria Ludovica now attempted to make up a
match between this brother Francesco, de jure Duke of
Modena, and her eldest step-daughter. In after years,
Marie Louise told her great friend, Lady Burghersh, that
what really reconciled her to marrying Napoleon was the
dread of this marriage with the despicable Francesco she
so disliked, and who was to be known by his subjects as
" the butcher," " the hangman." But Maria Ludovica
could twist her step-daughter round her little finger.
Marie Louise was secretly coerced into willingness to
the match, and induced to write to her father and tell
him so. The Kaiser, however, came to the rescue.
Francesco was a landless wanderer. " I have nothing,"
said Franz, " you have nothing, your brother has nothing,
and the girl has nothing ! "

The Carnaval — which in Austria begins with the
Christmas festivities — was dull, " no one wished to dance."
Marie Louise occupied herself with reading serious books :
"L'Esprit de 1'Histoire," by Ferrand, the German poets,
admiring Kleist and his epigrams, and amused herself teasing
Count Edling, when she played his accompaniments, by
improvizing harmonies. Meanwhile, all unknown to her,

62 An Imperial Victim

various personages were machinating her fate, and six
bare weeks settled the match with the Emperor.

Whether or no Napoleon, when at Vienna, had con-
sidered the possibility of a marriage with the Austrian
Archduchess, certain it is that, on his return to Paris,
he had decided to divorce Josephine. But he had more
than one string to his bow. At his interview at Erfurt
with the Czar he had broached the subject of a marriage
with the latter's sister Anne. From the point of view of
diplomacy it was the wisest match. Austria was con-
quered and humbled ; Russia had only been scotched,
and was now being cajoled by an alliance which the
marriage would cement. So, in November, the French
ambassador was bidden to seek a private audience with
the Czar, whom he found agreeable to the project. Bui
his mother, the Dowager-Empress, was against it. She
had already lost two daughters in childbirth, and hesitated
to sacrifice a third — Anne was only sixteen. Russia did
not receive Napoleon's proposal with avidity. It took
six weeks for couriers to bring replies from Petersburg to
Paris. Napoleon was, as ever, impatient of delay, and
unaccustomed to being dallied with.

Moreover, a great mind was stealthily directing his
attention to the Austrian match. Though Napoleon's
Empire now extended from the Atlantic to Turkey,
though Austria lay crushed under his heels, the defeat
of Wagram and the Treaty of Vienna had but kindlec
more fiercely than ever Austrian national feeling again;
him. But her policy, after her great effort and her
failure, was now one of calculation, and Austrian rather
than German. Stadion, who had dreamed of the emanci-
pation of Germany, was replaced by Count Metternich,
brilliant young diplomatist of the eighteenth-century type.
As ambassador at Paris he had not only worked well for
his country, but contrived to become a persona grata t<

The Net is Thrown 63

Napoleon, as well as the lover of his sister Caroline,
the Queen of Naples. Indispensable now to Austria,
after his services at the peace conference, he easily took
the reins out of Franz's weak hands. Calm and pene-
trating, he perceived that Napoleon would give no peace
till crushed, and conceived the idea of attaining his
object by a French alliance. He saw that the Russian
marriage would place Austria between the hammer
and the anvil, at the mercy of two great empires.
While Russia hesitated Metternich began to pull his
strings.

All the diplomatic circles in Paris were talking of
Napoleon's marriage, and one evening, at a gathering
of officials, all made conjectures as to the possible bride.
Delaborde, a member of the Chamber of Deputies during
the Revolution, and on Schwarzenberg's star? during
the war, incited by Bassano, launched his arrow at a
venture. Schwarzenberg, now Austrian ambassador at
Paris, took up the cue so promptly that it was plain
he had already considered the question. It was agreed
that a few days later should the offer be made.

Josephine was holding what was to be her last
reception. At its close, as the guests stood waiting
for their carriages, Semonville, an influential senator,
whilom ambassador at the Hague, found himself beside
Floret, a young Secretary of the Austrian Embassy,
who had been his intimate friend at the Dutch capital.
All the world imagined the Russian match settled when
S£monville suddenly attacked his neighbour.

" Well, well, that's over and the affair now settled !
Why wouldn't you have it ? "

" Who told you we wouldn't have it ? " retorted
Floret.

" People said so. Might it have been a mistake ? "

" Perhaps."

64 An Imperial Victim

" What ? You would be disposed — you, perhaps ;
but the ambassador ? "

"I can answer for the Prince Schwarzenberg."

" But Count Metternich ? "

"No difficulties."

" But the Emperor ? "

"None either."

" And the Empress, who hates us ? "

<c You don't know her ; she is ambitious, and will be
brought round to it."

S£monville at once went and retailed these interesting
remarks to his friend the Duke of Bassano, who, on
his side, carried them to Napoleon. The latter was
radiant, but not surprised. He said he had received
news of the same gist from Vienna.

It was in that city, at a little dinner at Metternich's,
with the old Prince de Ligne, the favourite of Marie
Antoinette, the Kaiser's aunt, and Count Lamark,
Mirabeau's confidant, that the Count de Narbonne,
who was passing through Vienna on his way to take up a
diplomatic appointment at Munich, broached the subject
of the Austrian match. He demonstrated how no peace
could be of permanent duration that was only political ;
that nothing but a domestic alliance would stop Napoleon's
conquering career, and that Austria would be badly
advised if she threw herself into the arms of Russia.
Narbonne's advice coincided with the policy that Metternich
was tracing out. When the former was received next
morning by the Kaiser in private audience Franz let
him perceive that he would consider an offer for his
daughter's hand, and Narbonne fostered his inclination
by showing him how Napoleon could thus be bridled
and tamed, and would work for the welfare of both
the nations in concert with such a wise and virtuous
father-in-law. The diplomat promptly despatched the

The Net is Thrown 65

report of this interview to Fouche at Paris, for the
!Emperor's eye.

Meanwhile there had come no decided answer from
Petersburg. The Czar asked for time, and his mother
seemed obdurate. A second despatch was sent off
begging for a reply. Napoleon chafed at the delay,
,and matters were at a standstill. Strange to say, the
knot was cut by the divorced Empress herself. Women,
matchmakers par excellence, succeeded when men seemed
it a loss.

On January 2 Josephine sent for the Countess
Metternich, who had stayed on in Paris during the war.
iFhe granddaughter of Kaunitz, the State-Chancellor, she
j^as very popular at Court. On arrival at Malmaison,
ind while waiting for the Ex-Empress to receive her,
pueen Hortense astonished the Countess by appearing,
sind exclaiming with effusion : " You know we are all
Austrian at heart, but you'll never guess that my brother
las been bold enough to advise the Emperor to ask for
four Archduchess ! "

Her mother also received Countess Metternich without
my beating about the bush. " I have a project which
>reoccupies me entirely," said Josephine, "and the
uccess of which gives me hope that the sacrifice I have
ust made may not be entirely wasted. It is that the
Smperor should marry your Archduchess. I spoke to
im about it yesterday, and he told me that his choice
vas not yet fixed. But I think it would be, if he were
ure of being accepted by you ! "

In the course of conversation she came back several
imes to the subject. "Yes, yes, we must try and
rrange it ! " She lamented that she was no longer in
3aris, or she would have brought the affair off, adding :
'You must make your Emperor see that his ruin and
hat of his country is certain, unless he consents to this

66 An Imperial Victim

marriage. -It is perhaps the only way to prevent
Napoleon from making a rupture with the Holy See."

Countess Metternich instantly posted off this news
to her husband. The following Sunday she was to be
presented to the Emperor at his reception, on the con-
clusion of peace. The latter, delighted to see her again,
was all graciousness, and let fall these enigmatic words :•
" Monsieur de Metternich has the first post in the Austrian
monarchy ; he knows this country well, and he might be
of use to it."

Faint rumours of these machinations leaked through
to their innocent object, sitting quietly painting and making
music in the fortress palace at Buda. She flared up
with insulted dignity. On January 10 she writes to
Victoire that Kotzbuch, the music-master, had evidently
been gossiping. " I seem to see him talking about the
separation of Napoleon from his wife, and I even seem
to hear him naming me as her successor ; but in that
he is mistaken, for Napoleon is too afraid of a refusal,
and too anxious to do us further harm, to make such an
offer." Then she adds, with the touching filial trust
that never left her, " and Papa is too good to force me
on a point of such importance."

To the Countess Colloredo she wrote on the day,
but more guardedly. " If only Papa would come but
once ! but his departure (from Vienna) is postponed from
day to day." The Empress was ill again. " I think
all these towns are alike. Buda is like Vienna, and no
one talks of anything but Napoleon's divorce. I let
them all talk, and don't worry myself at all, only 1
pity the poor princess whom he chooses, for I am sure
that it will not be me who will become the victim of
politics."

Still no answer from Russia. Napoleon flattered
himself he had I'embarras du choix, and that two Emperors

The Net is Thrown 67

ind a King were vying for the honour of a matrimonial
dliance with him. On January 21 he convened, after
Mass, a council at the Tuileries of the great dignitaries
of the Empire. It was on the very day that, seventeen
years before, the King of France, married to an Austrian
Archduchess, had perished on the scaffold, that they sat
discussing the respective merits of the Russian, Saxon,
or Austrian match. Some of the members, notably
Cambaceres, the Arch-Chancellor, favoured the Russian,
jfor the bare idea of a war with that country made him
tremble. Austria, on the other hand, was powerless.
•' I am aware, said the Arch-Chancellor, that the Emperor
knows the way to Vienna well, but I am not so sure
that he would find that to St. Petersburg."

The month of January wore on and nothing was
Decided one way or the other. On the 2yth Metternich
ikvrote to his wife : "Madame F Archiduchesse is, as is right,
quite ignorant of the steps which are being taken about
ler. . . . But our princesses are so little accustomed to
choosing their husbands with regard to their own feelings,
also the respect which such a well-brought-up and good
child as the Archduchess bears to the will of her father
nduces me to hope that I shall not encounter any obstacle
with her.'7

Marie Louise already felt the net tightening round
ler, for four days previously she had written to her
dear Victoire : " I know that they at Vienna are already
marrying me with the great Napoleon, and I hope it will
go no further than talk, and I am much obliged to you,
dear Victoire, for your fine wishes on the subject. I am
making counter-wishes that it may not come to pass, and
if it had to be I think 1 should be the only one who
would not rejoice at it."

This letter should have completely refuted the court
gossip of the moment, that Marie Louise, grateful to

68 An Imperial Victim

Napoleon for having spared her during the bombardment
of Vienna, was inclining favourably towards him.

At last, on February 6, came the long-expected
despatch from the Czar, dated a fortnight after the
expiration of the time given for a reply, and even now
he decided nothing. Though the Dowager-Empress had
given way, the Grand-duchess Anne insisted on retaining
her religion, and the Czar mixed up politics with the
marriage conditions. Further, Napoleon, on inquiry,
found the Grand-duchess too young for marriage. On
receipt of the despatch he abruptly broke off the
negotiations. He ordered the Due de Cadore to
send off a courier to Petersburg giving up the marriage,
to be followed shortly by another announcing the
Austrian engagement. " I have decided for F t/futrichiennA
Bring me," he added, " the contract between Louis XVI.
and rhistorique Marie Antoinette. Write to-night to
Prince Schwarzenberg to make an appointment for
to-morrow morning/'

The Austrian ambassador, who had no notion that
things would move so quickly, was in a dilemma. His
instructions were not cut and dried, he was only to act
provisionally. C( The Kaiser," wrote Metternich, " would
never force his beloved daughter to a match she might
abhor." (!) Moreover, Schwarzenberg was to clench,
as far as he could, the advantages France should offer to
Austria as the conditions of such a marriage. However,
he did not hesitate long. He burnt his ships ; for, at any
moment, a courier might arrive from Petersburg bringing
a definite acceptance from the Czar. The marriage
contract was signed the next morning, February 7, 1810,
at the Tuileries.

It was an almost literal copy of the marriage contract
of Marie Antoinette signed forty years before. Strange
that Napoleon did not see, not only the bad taste, but

The Net is Thrown 69

also the evil augury, of thus taking that of her unfor-
tunate great-aunt as a precedent for that of Marie Louise.
Yet he had expressed himself with more than usual
chivalry about the ill-fated Queen, when the Austrian
match was being discussed at the Council. "King
Louis XVI.," he remarked, " probably only got his
deserts, but to execute a woman — a queen, who only
shares the honours, and none of the responsibilities of
the throne ! "

Floret was promptly despatched with letters to Metter-
nich explaining the causes which had led to the hurry in
concluding the contract, and Schwarzenberg begged that
he might be thoroughly supported in what he had done.
" I pity the Princess, it is true, but let her nevertheless
not forget that it is very noble to give peace to such
worthy nations, and to establish herself as the guarantee
of tranquillity and general repose."

The court of the Tuileries was in ecstasy. Napoleon,
learning the Vienna waltz, and sending for his tailor to
" fit him properly," imagined that he had never gained
such a triumph, and Paris, not unprepared, was delighted
at the news. At Vienna, however, it burst like a bomb-
shell. The Russian Minister was " literally petrified."
It leaked out at a ball at a Russian house, and the dancing
at once ceased. In the streets the passers-by stopped
each other, asking," Is it possible?" But, with the volatile
Viennese, surprise almost immediately gave place to joy
beyond description. The Funds went up by leaps and
bounds. Business men saw that the union made for peace
and for a return to prosperity ; the army hoped, with
such allies, to regain its old prestige. Metternich, at the
height of joy and satisfaction, wrote to his wife :

" All Vienna is busy only over the marriage. It would
be difficult to realize the energy that all this has given
to public spirit, and the extreme popularity of the affair.

70 An Imperial Victim

If I were the saviour of the world I could not receive more
congratulations or compliments on the part I am supposed
to have taken. Among the honours which will be given, t
I shall have the c Golden Fleece/ . . . The fetes will be
very splendid, and if it were necessary to find the things
for them at the world's end, everything would be there.
. . . The new Empress will be popular at Paris, and
should please by her great sweetness and simplicity. 1
Rather plain than pretty in the face, she has a very fine
figure, and when she is dressed up a little she will do very
well. I have begged her hard to have a dancing-master
directly she arrives, and not to dance before she can
dance well. She has the greatest wish to please, and with
such a wish one does please."

The court of Austria intended to arrange the marriage
with all magnificence. Knowing Napoleon to be such a
stickler for etiquette and ceremony, the archives were
ransacked for accounts of the marriage of the great Louis,
and the royalists of the old regime of the court of
Versailles were consulted. But as the marriage was
considered superior to that of Marie Antoinette, or any
Dauphiness, for Marie Louise the numbers of her house-
hold were doubled, and the representatives of the noblest
families chosen for her suite, headed by Prince Traut-
mannsdorf himself as Grand Chamberlain. The Kaiser
ordered that all the honours and ceremonies paid to the
Kaiserinn at his latest marriage were to be rendered to his
daughter at the marriage ceremony. He was so delighted
with the match that he • chatted about it even to private
people, openly regretting that he had been dragged into
the late war, which would not have been the case, he
averred, had he known the magnanimity and loyalty of
Napoleon !

The Kaiserinn, lately so furiously anti-French, had
now quite come round, and " was extremely favourable

By Sir Thomas Lawrence.
PRINCE CLEMENT METTERNTCH.

The Net is Thrown 73

to the marriage. In spite of the bad state of her
health, she has declared that she wishes to be at all the
fetes."

Thus the French ambassador, writing home a glowing
account of the Court and Austria in general, and of Marie
Louise in particular, which must have greatly pleased his
master. ° Every one is agreed that Madame V Archi-
duchesse joins to a very sweet disposition common sense
and all the talents brought forth by a careful education.
She is generally liked at Court and greeted as a model of
sweetness and kindness ; has a good appearance, without
the least affectation, modesty without embarrassment,
speaking well in several languages, and knowing how
to combine a dignified bearing with much affability. On
entering the grand monde^ which she has hardly yet seen,
her good qualities will doubtless further develop and
impart to her person even more graciousness and interest.
She is tall and well-made, and enjoys excellent health.
Her features seemed to me regular and full of sweetness.

" The town is entirely occupied about the great
marriage, for which preparations are beginning. All eyes
are fixed exclusively on Madame T Archlduchesse. . . .
Every one is delighted to hear that she is in the best
possible spirits, and does not hide the satisfaction the
alliance gives her.

" Never has public opinion been pronounced in a
more startling and unanimous manner. The Funds go
up in the most astonishing way . . . many people have
difficulty in selling their gold. . . . Many people who had
retained their plate, in the hope of hiding it or sending
it to a foreign country, hurry to take it to the mint and
look upon the scrip given in exchange as so much
current coin. The heads of the great families order
plate to replace that which they had to sacrifice for the
State. Every one is ready to give all their fortune, being

*— 5

74 An Imperial Victim

assured that, after such an alliance, the Government could
not again fail to meet their obligations. Russians and
Prussians are at a discount, the French adored."

And the grass not yet green upon the field of
Wagram !

But what of the feelings of Marie Louise herself?
" Madame I ' Archiduchesse" wrote Metternich, " only saw
in the hints given her by her august father as to the
possibility of Napoleon's extending his views to her,
the means of proving to her beloved parent her most
absolute devotion. She feels the full extent of the
sacrifice, but her filial affection overpowers all other
considerations."

" The Minotaur," wrote Lord Castlereagh, "demanded
the sacrifice of an Austrian maiden."

Years afterwards General Trobiand, afterwards dis-
tinguished in the American Civil War, heard her say at
Venice : <c I have been sacrificed ! "

In later years Marie Louise told her English friend,
Lady Burghersh, that it was a mistake to think that she
had been coerced into the marriage with Napoleon, that
her father had given her perfect liberty of action, though
putting before her the great advantage it would be forj
the country. She also had a good deal of curiosity
see the great man, and Paris, and so on ; so that, o
the whole, she went quite willingly.

Metternich left it to the father to decide the daughter's
fate. But Franz replied : " It is my daughter that I order
to decide, as I shall never coerce her. I wish to hear,
before considering my duty as sovereign, what she mea
to do."

Fearful of influencing her in any way, he sent Mette
nich to her with the fateful message. The great diplomat
did not beat about the bush, but went straight to the
point.

or

:

The Net is Thrown 75

"The Archduchess," he writes, "listened with her
usual calmness, and, after a moment's reflection, asked :
€ And what are my father's wishes ? * * The Kaiser,' I
replied, * has charged me to ask your Imperial Highness
what decision she intends to take in circumstances in
which the whole future of her life is at stake. Do not
ask what the Emperor wishes ; tell me what you wish
yourself.' c I only wish what my duty commands me
to wish. When it is a question of the interests of the
Empire, it is he who must be consulted, not my will.
Beg my father only to do his duty as sovereign, and not
to subordinate it to my personal interest ' — words which
formed, indeed, her motto for the rest of her father's
life."

CHAPTER V

THE FIRST SACRIFICE

THE first of the three marriage ceremonies which
made Marie Louise Empress of the French was
to take place on March 1 1 at Vienna ; but there was
nearly a slip 'twixt cup and lip. Three days after signing
the marriage contract and announcing to his Council that
any son and heir of his was to be called the King of Rome
and hold his court there, Napoleon annexed the States of
the Church. It was naturally, therefore, out of the ques-
tion that the Pope, a prisoner at Savona, hurling curses
against the usurper, would pronounce the divorce between
Napoleon and Josephine. In the eyes of the Church this
could be ratified by him alone. So Napoleon threw the
responsibility of deciding if the diocesan officials of Paris
were competent to pronounce it upon his pliant uncle,
Cardinal Fesch, and an ecclesiastical committee. Not-
withstanding the fact that the Cardinal had himself given >
Napoleon and Josephine the belated nuptual benediction
in 1804, and that Napoleon had selected him to solemnize
his marriage with Marie Louise, Fesch lent himself to
such quibbles as the absence of witnesses, of the parish
clergy, of Napoleon's final consent, in virtue of which
the two tribunals, diocesan and metropolitan, pronounced
the nullity of Josephine's marriage. Their decision was
sent to Otto, ambassador at Vienna. To quiet the Kaiser'
conscience — for the Hapsburgs are nothing if not orthodo

76

The First Sacrifice 77

— he mentioned the decision to him, and then, three
days after the ratification of the marriage contract,
despatched the documents back to Paris, " having a
presentiment of the discussions they might occasion on
the part of the foreign ecclesiastics." But the French
emigre clergy at Vienna worked upon the Archbishop
who was to perform the marriage by proxy there, and,
rather late in the day, the latter began to have qualms
as to the legality of Josephine's divorce. Otto was in
a dilemma. For the ambassador extraordinary was
already en route to claim the bride. The Archbishop
stiffened, and demanded to see the documents. Days
and nights were spent by the Minister of Foreign Affairs
in endeavouring to conciliate him ; the Kaiser grew
anxious. Finally, Otto swore on his word of honour,
and signed and sealed, that he had seen the decrees,
which were conformable both to the civil and ecclesiastical
laws of France, and thus a marriage, begun in intrigue,
was completed by double-dealing.

With the brilliant ending of the Carnaval coincided
the entry into Vienna of the sovereign prince of Neuf-
chatel, husband of Princess Maria Elizabeth of Bavaria,
Vice-Constable of France, Grand Veneur^ head of the first
cohort of the Legion of Honour, Marshal Berthier, one
of Napoleon's oldest friends his companion in arms,
sent to fetch his bride. To depute the bearer of such
a purloined title was questionable taste, but he held the
highest rank in France after the Emperor, and Vienna
did not stand on its dignity. While London was sad,
and Louis XVIII. in despair, Berthier, received at the
gates by Count Paul Esterhazy as a sovereign prince,
was acclaimed by the volatile population with enthusiasm.

Ash-Wednesday and the three days after " were
consecrated to devotion," wrote Otto. " Then all
Vienna buzzed with excitement and joy. The fetes

78 An Imperial Victim

are the same as at the Kaiser's recent marriage. Painters
work day and night to make decorations, every morn-
ing thousands press to see the Archduchess come out
of Mass. Her portraits are in great demand. The
Kaiser and the Archdukes do not miss a single redoute^
where the crowd surround them and the masks say
pleasant things to them. One would say that this alliance
augments the popularity of the Kaiser, which is already
great/'

When Berthier was presented to the Kaiserinn the
latter spoke prettily of her step-daughter, Cl and that
young princess talked to us with great interest of France,
of Paris, and of the arts which she hoped to cultivate in
that interesting place."

Franz replied to Napoleon's letters sent by Count
Lauriston. " In depositing in your hands, M. mon frere^
the fate of my beloved daughter, I give Your Majesty
the strongest proof of esteem and confidence which I
can bestow upon him. There are moments when the
holiest of affections overpowers all other considerations.
May Your Imperial Majesty find in this letter only
the expression of the feelings of a father, whom eighteen
years of a sweet intimacy have knitted to a child whom
Providence has endued with every quality which makes
for domestic happiness. Removed from me, she will
only continue worthy of my unremitting affection in
so far as she contributes to the happiness of a husband
whose throne she is about to share, and to the happiness
of her subjects."

The Kaiserinn wrote : " The tender devotion of
the best of fathers to his favourite child does not need
any support. Our wishes are identical. I repose the
same confidence as he does in the happiness of Your
Majesty and our daughter. But let it be for me to
assure Your Imperial Majesty of the many good qualities

The First Sacrifice 79

of heart and mind which distinguish the latter. That
which might be attributed to the too palpable tenderness
of a father cannot be suspected from the pen of her
mother by adoption."

Festivities succeeded each other. To the deputations
sent by the different States of her father's Empire, with
addresses of congratulations, " despite the timidity
natural to her age, the Princess replied by a speech
which surprised and moved the hearers." To the
Hungarians she replied in Latin, their official language.
At a private banquet, where the two French ambassadors
were given precedence of the Archdukes, Otto reports
that the Archduchess asked many questions after the
manner of an artless school-girl, and which showed the
seriousness of her tastes. " c The Napoleon Museum
is near enough to the Tuileries for me to go and
study its antiquities and the fine specimens that are
there ? . . . Does the Emperor like music ? May I
have a master for the harp ? It is an instrument I
like very much. . . . The Emperor is so kind to me,
doubtless he will allow me to have a botanical garden.
Nothing would give me greater pleasure. . . . They
tell me that at Fontainebleau there are spots which are
very picturesque and wild. I do not know anything more
interesting than beautiful country. I owe many obliga-
tions to the Emperor in that he allows me to take
Madame Lazansky with me and has appointed Madame
de Montebello. They are two very estimable ladies. . . .
I hope the Emperor will be very indulgent to me. I do
not know how to dance quadrilles, but if he allows me
I will have a dancing-master. . . . Do you think Hum-
boldt's ' Journey ' will soon be finished ? I have read
with so much interest what has already appeared of it.' '

" I told Her Imperial Highness that the Emperor
wished to know her tastes and even her usual habits.

8o An Imperial Victim

She replied that anything suited her, that her tastes were
very simple, and that she could adapt herself to any
mode of life, and that she would conform entirely to that
of His Majesty, wishing only to please him. ... I must
mention that, during the hour which my conversation
with Her Imperial Highness lasted, she did not once
speak to me of the fashions, or of the theatres of Paris."

In the evening was held that most popular of fetes,
a redoute^ or masked ball, to which six thousand people
of all ranks were invited. In a dazzling temple of light
the genius of Victory mounted on an altar crowned the
coats of arms of the betrothed pair with laurel. At
numerous buffets draped with French flags crowds of
citizens drank to their healths in Tokay. " The Arch-
duchess, who had never been to a redoute in her life,
passed through the halls on her father's arm. The air
was rent with cheers, and the crowds pressed round them
with a joy and eagerness difficult to depict."

Next day Berthier made his official proposal for the
hand of Marie Louise, and presented the marriage
contract. It was noticed that it was drawn up in French.
Now Latin was the Austrian official language, but Franz
could not afford to stand on his dignity, and merely
remarked that this was not to create a precedent. The
same evening arrived Count Anatole de Montesquieu
from France presenting a miniature of the Emperor set
in diamonds, which Marie Louise then and there hung
on her breast.

Vienna was a blaze of bunting and decorations.
Dinners and gala nights at the theatre succeeded each
other, and poets burst into song. A pathetic touch was
the crowding to the gates of the Burg of such French
wounded officers and privates who were well enough to
leave their beds, in order to gaze upon their future
Empress. When Marie Louise heard of this she went

The First Sacrifice 81

! to see them, speaking to them so kindly that the braves

I went wild with delight : " Vive la Princesse ! " <c Vive la

maison d'Autriche ! " And the good folk of Vienna

were but overjoyed to hear the daughter of their

i sovereign cheered by their conquerors at Essling and

Wagram !

The day before the wedding at a state ceremonial in
the Privy Council-chamber, Marie Louise swore upon
i the Gospels her renunciation of her rights to the suc-
cession to the throne of Austria. In the evening was a
i gala opera, Gliick's Iphigenia in kauris at the Hof
theatre — the grand staircase an avenue of orange-trees
I blazing with lights.

Marie Louise was married by proxy in the old church
i of the Augustines, which forms part of the vast pile of
the Hofburg. Thither, starting from the state apart-
! ments on the southern side of the Franzensplatz, the long
procession of court and state officials, of Archdukes
'preceding the Kaiser, escorted by body-guards and
; archers, passed between a double rank of soldiers, and
; closed with the Kaiserinn leading by the hand the bride,
her train borne alternately, during the long route, by
\grandes mattresses of the Court and pages. Cymbals and
jtrumpets heralded the arrival of the cortege at the
ichurch, where the Prince-Archbishop and his bishops
!and clergy met it and sprinkled the principals with holy
water. The Imperial family passed into the choir, the
Archbishop took his place at the altar. Marie Louise
jknelt before it, by her side her uncle, the Archduke
'Charles, representing his quondam opponent. In ac-
cordance with the Vienna rite the marriage service was
said in German. After the exchanging of the rings,
Marie Louise took back that intended for Napoleon, as
jshe was to give it to him herself. Then, before a vast
congregation of kneeling faithful, a Te Deum was sung,

82 An Imperial Victim

while pages waved flaring torches, and the booming of
cannon and the clanging of bells announced to the city
that the marriage was accomplished.

Afterwards, in the Hall of Mirrors, followed a
brilliant reception by the Kaiser and the Kaiserinn of a
distinguished crowd so vast that it overflowed all over
the palace and even jostled the Imperial hosts. u But
all eyes,1' writes a French ambassador, "were fixed on
the central object of this fete, on this adored Princess
who will soon complete the happiness of our sovereign.
Her modesty, the dignity of her presence, the ease with
which she replied to the speeches made to her, delighted
every one. . . . She replied to my address that she
would do all in her power to please His Majesty the
Emperor Napoleon, and to contribute to the happiness
of the French nation, which was from this moment her
own. Her Majesty then received all the lords of the Court
and spoke to them with a kindness which charmed them."
The Kaiser's voice and smile added to the pleasing
words with which he addressed the ambassador : " I
give your master my beloved daughter. She deserves
to be happy. Cannot you see the joy expressed on all
the faces ? — our nations need repose, they approve the
line we have taken."

At the state banquet which followed, and on which
Marie Louise's little brothers and sisters looked down
from a gallery, there was a great innovation. The
Prince of Neufchatel sat at the Imperial table from the
beginning to the end of dinner. In consequence of
the extreme punctiliousness of the Austrian Court, foreign
ambassadors rarely are seated in the presence of the
Kaiser, or, at most, they only remain till dessert, when
they rise and join the crowd of nobles admitted as
spectators. At the wedding banquet of Marie Antoinette
the French ambassador did not dine.

The First Sacrifice 83

In the evening the Kaiser, the Kaiserinn, and the
bride drove round the city. Every theatre gave free
performances. Unfortunately, it was a showery spring
evening, which somewhat marred the illuminations, the
ingenious adulatory fiery devices, and the transparencies
with which the city blazed. A golden Napoleon had
been given by Marie Louise to each of the French
wounded, and five to those who had lost a limb, and
the act evoked immense enthusiasm and she was
vociferously cheered. There were, indeed, a few satirical
or offensive posters placarded, but the police made short
work of them.

Preceded by the Prince of Neufchatel, who was to
receive her on the frontier of Bavaria, which, as now
belonging to the Confederation of the Rhine under
French protection, was considered French soil, Marie
Louise quitted her home two days after the marriage.

" Her Majesty, the Empress of the French, left this

morning with a very large suite," chronicles her

ambassador. " On quitting her beloved family and a

country which she will never see again, the Princess

felt for the first time the agony of such a cruel

separation. From eight in the morning all the Court

I had collected in the audience-chambers. About nine the

Kaiserinn appeared leading her august step-daughter by

i the right hand. She attempted to speak to me, but her sobs

stifled her. The young Empress was accompanied by her

step-mother and the Archdukes to the door of her carriage,

where they embraced her- for the last time. Then the

strength of this affectionate mother gave way. Almost

j fainting, she was carried by two chamberlains to her

| apartments. The young Empress burst into tears, and

I her grief infected the spectators."

No doubt the ordeal of this tremendous volte-face
had been for the past few weeks exceedingly trying to the

84 An Imperial Victim

clever lady, member of the 'fugendbund, who had
worked so hard against him on whom she now fawned
as her stepson-in-law !

To the sound of bells and of cannon, escorted by
cavalry, and preceded by Count Edling and her household,
and by Prince Trautmannsdorf, deputed by the Kaiser as
the most noble of Austrian aristocrats to hand her over at
the frontier, Marie Louise drove slowly towards the city
gate. Seated in a carriage drawn by eight horses, her old
friend and confidante Countess Lazansky by her side, she
was followed by carriages with her ladies-in-waiting.
" The people had tied tricolour ribbons to their houses
and even to the castle gates. For the first time the
regimental bands played French marches ! "

" The delirious delight which has reigned in Vienna
during the last weeks, and which Her Majesty has en-
joyed as much as any one, has momentarily given way
to feelings which do honour to her kind heart and
which must render her still more dear to us. She has
a deep affection for her parents, which is mutual. Here
she has been given the name of c Louise the Pious,'
and people say it is meet that she should share the
throne of St. Louis. . . . Every one has noticed that,
in these last days, the solicitude of a father is more
apparent in his (the Kaiser's) actions than the caution
of a sovereign. The kindly character of this ruler has
come out on this occasion in the most favourable
manner, and augurs well for the best results of the
alliance which has just been concluded."

Received in every village with the same enthusiasi
as in Vienna, Marie Louise pursued her journey.
her first resting-place, St. Polten, a delightful surpri*
awaited her. The " best of fathers " had driven thith<
incognito to kiss her for the last time, and with hi]
quite unexpectedly, came her step-mother. The Kaiser1!

The First Sacrifice 85

Jast words to his daughter were: " Be a good wife,
a good mother, and make yourself pleasant in every way
to your husband — Austrian politics always understood —
as long as he is powerful and lucky and useful to our
family." At Ried, where she slept again, Louise the
Pious heard Mass in the morning, and by noon had
reached Altheim, close to the frontier, where she stopped
to remove her travelling-dress and array herself in state.

Bran nau, the frontier town, is an insignificant little

place ; but for ten days past it had hardly known

! itself. Feverish preparations had been going on, houses

'knocked into one, temporary accommodation erected,

for here was waiting the French mission to escort the

;new Empress to her lord, and here was spread out the

i wonderful trousseau he had prepared in Paris, and the

magnificent presents. This trousseau was probably the

most sumptuous that ever bride possessed ; even a

! cursory inventory of it would prove wearisome. Five

'million francs had been spent to array and adorn Marie

: Louise's body, the dresses were counted by the dozen,

the under-garments of every description by the fifties,

and the footgear by the hundred. The wedding dress

cost £480, the court dresses hundreds of pounds. There

were ball dresses trimmed with the Napoleonic violets,

and with raspberries, light evening dresses of tulle ;

one in blonde lace costing £100. The hunting costumes

were in white satin and gold, in velvet and gold. There

iwere blonde veils galore. One night-cap cost ^35, a

lace court train £600. There were three hundred

handkerchiefs of cambric and lace, but only sixteen dozen

i pairs of gloves at thirty shillings a dozen. Jewelled

ifans, one set with diamonds, gold tooth-picks in a

gold case, were included. A diamond and emerald parurc,

with comb, cost ^8,000. " But what struck us most,"

writes Bausset, comptroller of Napoleon's household,

86 An Imperial Victim

and who was one of the French mission, " among so
many beautiful things, was the smallness of her feet,
to judge by the shoes we brought, and which were made
from patterns sent from Vienna." Napoleon had seen
these models, and, tapping his valet on the cheek with
one, had exclaimed : " Look, Constant, here's a good
omen ! Have you seen many feet like that ? "

In a house opposite the Burghaus, be-flagged and
decorated with a triumphal arch in front, the Empress
lodged. On a strip of neutral territory between the
frontiers had been set up a wooden erection, consisting
of three communicating saloons: one Austrian, one
French, and the central one neutral, all heated with
stoves, for the spring is cold in mid-Germany. Avenues
of fine trees had been planted leading up from the high-
road, and a large enclosure arranged for the carriages of
the two processions.

The same ceremonial was observed at the handing
over of Marie Louise as at that of her ill-fated great-aunt,
on the same spot. Every item in the programme had
been supervised by Napoleon, with his wonderful eye
for detail. Received at the entrance of the town by
Davoust's division — just evacuating Austrian territory—
and which stood to arms as her carriage approached,
Marie Louise got out and entered the Austrian saloon.
Here was a dais with an arm-chair in cloth of gold, facing
the opening into the middle saloon. In front of the
chair stood a splendid table, on which were to be signed
the official documents.

In the French saloon waited the French household,
headed by the Queen of Naples. Not so beautiful
Pauline Borghese, Caroline Murat, the cleverest
Napoleon's sisters, was the most attractive. So, at le<
whispered scandal, had Metternich found her durinj
his embassy at Paris. Deputed by her brother to bi

The First Sacrifice 87

Marie Louise's stupendous trousseau, she had contrived
to have herself sent to chaperonc his bride. By being
thus the first of the family to make her acquaintance,
she hoped to secure an influence over the inexperienced
young girl. But, considering that Caroline occupied the
throne from which Napoleon had ousted Marie Louise's
aunt, his choice of an emissary was hardly a happy one !

In appointing his bride's household Napoleon had con-
ciliated all interests and all souvenirs, French and Italian.
The Duchesse de Montebello, the belle veuve of his old
comrade-in-arms, Lannes, killed at Wagram, had been
appointed dame dhonneur. The Comtesse de Lu$ay was
dame d'atours, the Duchesse de Bassano, Comtesses de
Montmorency, Mortemart, de Bouille, Talhouet, Lauris-
ton, Duchatel, Montalivert, Peron, Lascaris, Noailles,
Ventimiglia,Brignole, Gentili, and Canisy, ladies-in-waiting.
The Bishop of Metz was made head chaplain, Comte
Beauharnais chevalier d'honneur. Prince Aldobrandini
Borghese first equerry, Comtes d'Aubusson, de B£arn,
d'Angosse, de Barrel, chamberlains, Comte Philippe de
Segur quartermaster of the palace, Barons Saluces and
Audenarde equerries, Comte Seyssel master of the
ceremonies, and Bausset comptroller of the household.

All agog were the French party for the first glimpse
of their new mistress. Bausset had even armed himself
with a gimlet, " wherewith I made several holes in the
door of our saloon. This little indiscretion, which was
not mentioned in the official report, gave us the pleasure
of contemplating at our ease the features of our new
young sovereign, and I need not say that our ladies were
i the most anxious to make use of the little openings which
I had arranged/'

This is what the French saw through their peepholes.
" Marie Louise entered, preceded by the Austrian master
of the ceremonies, mounted her throne, and all the per-

88 An Imperial Victim

sonages of her household placed themselves to right and
left of her, according to their rank. The last line was
formed of five officers of the Noble Hungarian Guard,
whose uniform is so rich and splendid. . . . The Empress
was standing on her dais ; her tall figure was perfect ;
her hair was fair and good ; her blue eyes showed all
the frankness and innocence of her soul ; her face
breathed freshness and sweetness. She wore a dress of
gold brocade, brocaded with large flowers in natural
colours, and the weight of which must have tried her
much. She wore hanging round her neck the miniature
of Napoleon, set in sixteen magnificent single diamonds,
which had cost altogether five hundred thousand francs."

" Among those awaiting her," writes Madame Durand,
one of her lectrices, " were many who had known Marie
Antoinette. All thought how sad Marie Louise must
feel on mounting the throne on which her great-aunt had
experienced such misfortunes. The Princess came ; her .
appearance was not at all sad. She was gracious to every
one, and she had the art of pleasing nearly every one."

When all was ready the Austrian master of the
ceremonies knocked at the door of the French saloon,
and the French procession entered, headed by the Prince
of Neufchatel, who faced the Austrian household. The
acts of reception were then signed ; two secretaries of
each nationality counted out the dowry — five hundred
thousand francs in golden ducats, all new — and handed over
the inventory, and the receipt for the Empresses jewels.

Then the Austrians, headed by Neufchatel, defiled
before the throne, " bowing and kissing the hand of the
beloved Princess from whom they were parting ; even
servants of the most humble order were admitted to lay
their homage, their regrets, and their wishes at her feet. '
Her Majesty's eyes were wet with tears, and this touching
show of feeling won all our hearts."

THE ARCHDUCHESS MARIE LOUISE.

89

The First Sacrifice 91

Neufchatel then led the Empress towards the French
household, and presented them. Finally, the door of the
French saloon opened, and the Queen of Naples herself
came to it. The sisters-in-law embraced and talked for
a few moments. Then Marie Louise received the
Archduke Anton, sent by the Kaiser to compliment the
Queen of Naples, and who was to return at once to
Vienna to give an account of the " handing over.'* In
an hour all was over. The sisters-in-law entered a
carriage, and, followed by the French household, drove
into Braunau between lines of troops.

The French mission entertained the Austrian courtiers
to dinner, but the two households did not amalgamate
successfully. The Comte de Segur writes that he never
saw anything so stiff and haughty as the demeanour of
the Austrian ladies, who appeared to grudge the handing
over of their Princess, as if she were the last indemnity
due to the victors in the war.

When the Empress reached Braunau she was un-
dressed and clothed from head to foot in the new French
clothes which had been brought for her. The last tie
with her home was severed — "Thou shalt forget also
thy people and thy father's house." Then she had to
receive the authorities of the little town and the French
general. After this she was allowed a little respite, and
seized the opportunity to write and tell her father all that
had happened to her.

"BRAUNAU, March 16, 1810.

"DEAR FATHER,

" Forgive me for not having written to you
yesterday, as I should have done, but I was prevented by
the journey, which has been very long and very, tiring.
I am so glad to take advantage of the opportunity offered
by Prince TrautmannsdorPs return to tell you how
constantly I think of you. God has given me strength
i— 6

92 An Imperial Victim

to bear the cruel shock of this separation from all my
dearest. In Him I put my trust, and He will sustain
me, and give me courage to accomplish my task. My
comfort will be in the thought of the sacrifice made for
you. I reached Ried very late yesterday, sad in thinking
that I am perhaps separated from you for ever. At two
o'clock to-day I reached the French camp at Braunau.
I remained a few instants in the Austrian hut, and there
I heard the documents read, on the neutral limit, where
a throne had been set. All my people came and kissed
my hand, and at that moment it was hard to restrain my
feelings. A cold shudder ran down me, and I was so
upset that it brought tears to the Prince of Neufchatel's
eyes. Prince Trautmannsdorf handed me over to him,
and all my household was presented to me. Ah, God !
what a difference between the French and the Austrian
ladies ! . . . The Queen of Naples came to meet me,
and took me in her arms and showed me a surprising
affection ; but still I do not trust it, I do not think that it
is only the desire to be of use to me that actuates her on
this journey. She came with me to Braunau, and there I
had to endure a toilette two hours long. I assure youi
that I am now quite as perfumed as the other French-
women. The Emperor Napoleon has sent me a splendid
gold toilet service. He has not written to me yet. As
I have been obliged to leave you, I would rather be with
him than with all these ladies. Ah, God ! How I regret
the good times I had with you ! Only now do I appreciate
them. I assure you, dear papa, that I am sad and incon-
solable. I hope your cold has gone away. Every day I
pray for you. Excuse my scribble, I have so little time.
I kiss your hands a thousand times, and I have the
honour to be, dear papa, your obedient and humble
daughter,

" MARIE LOUISE."

The First Sacrifice 93

Next day she started for Munich. <c She did not
take leave of those who had accompanied her from Vienna
without sorrow," writes Madame Durand, " but she parted
from them with courage. At the moment when she was
getting into the carriage which was to take her to Munich,
her comptroller, an old man of sixty-five, who had followed
her thus far, raised his clasped hands as if imploring
favours from Heaven, and blessing her like a father. His
eyes showed him to have a mind full of good thoughts
and sad memories, and his tears drew tears from all the
witnesses of this moving scene. Of all her Austrian
cortege, only Madame Lazansky, her grande mattresse,
remained with Marie Louise ; she had leave to accompany
her to Paris. The Empress left with her new household,
without being acquainted with any of the persons who
formed part of it.'*

CHAPTER VI

THE MEETING

MARIE LOUISE halted a day at Munich, received
with the highest honours by the King and Queen,
the city being illuminated as it had never been before,
and a state banquet, a reception, and a gala opera taking
place.

The day's rest brought her the first letter from
Napoleon ; it also brought her her first grief. The
French ladies - in - waiting were jealous of Countess
Lazansky, and worked upon the Queen of Naples to get
rid of her. They found this friend and confidante who
had cared for Marie Louise with such indefatigable zeal
since her childhood much in the way. The Duchesse de
Montebello complained that she would be unable to guide
the young Empress if the latter had ever beside her a
foreigner who was all in all to her. But the French
ambassador had written home to say that he would offer
no opposition, and Napoleon had granted leave for
Lazansky to accompany her mistress to Paris. So Marie
Louise, grateful, as we have seen in her conversation with
Otto, for the Emperor's indulgence, hoped at least to
retain her friend's services for a year.

The French ladies, however, anxious to gain th<
ascendant, pointed out to the Queen of Naples that si
would not gain her sister-in-law's affection as long
Lazansky remained with her. Now Marie Louise, as

94

The Meeting 95

have seen in her letter to her father, instinctively dis-
trusted the shrewd, designing woman who had appro-
priated her aunt's kingdom, and Lazansky backed up her
young mistress's feelings.

" Madame Murat," writes Madame Durand, " was
ambitious of gaining a great influence over Marie Louise,
and if she had acted more cleverly she might have suc-
ceeded. M. de Tallyrand said of her that she had the
head of a Cromwell on the body of a pretty woman.
Born with a strong character, a good head, broad views,
and a supple and pliant mind, with charm and sweetness,
fascinating beyond expression, all that was lacking to her
was the art of hiding her love of power, and when she did
not reach her goal it was because she wished to attain it
too rapidly. From the first moment when she saw the
Austrian Princess she imagined that she had fathomed her
character, and she made quite a mistake. Taking her
timidity for weakness, her shyness for awkwardness, she
thought she had but to assert her will, and thus she
closed for always the heart of her whom she desired to
dominate."

In the end, however, it was represented to the Empress
that a foreign lady-in-waiting with a French sovereign was
an anomaly. No order from the Emperor was indeed
shown her, but Marie Louise thought that the best way
to ingratiate herself with him was to yield. "She wished
sincerely," says Madame Durand, " to win the affection of
those with whom she would have to live, and, for peace'
sake, she did not resist," following, now as ever, the line
of the least resistance. But the parting from Countess
Lazansky was a great wrench.

"How painful this separation is to me!" the poor girl
wrote to her father. " I could not indeed make a greater
sacrifice for my husband, and yet I do not think that this
sacrifice was in his thoughts."

9 6 An Imperial Victim

The worst part of the behaviour of the Queen in this
matter was that she issued orders that Countess Lazansky
was not to be admitted to say good-bye to her young
mistress. But the other ladies had not the heart to carry
out this cruel decree. The late grande maitresse was
smuggled in by the back door to spend a last two hours
with the girl she had so faithfully watched over.

A further touch of spite on the part of the Queen was
the sending back to Vienna with the Countess Lazansky
of Marie Louise's favourite little dog. The reason given
was that Josephine's pet, Fortune, had been a perpetual
source of irritation to Napoleon, who did not like dogs.

" The entire change of toilette," writes the Comte de
S£gur, " was but an amusement ; the change of her
attendants had been foreseen, and was inevitable. This
painful transition might have passed without too much
apparent grief, had not the jealous attentions of Napoleon's
sister been extended even to a small Viennese dog ; the
inexorable dismissal cost Marie Louise many tears."

Among both the aristocracy and the populace of
Vienna the return of the Countess Lazansky created much
hurt and angry feeling; and English and Russian spies
fanned the flame. The Kaiser himself questioned the
French ambassador as to what had taken place, and as
to why the Countess had not been allowed to proceed
as had been arranged. Then, in his usual easy-going
way, he let be what had to be, and by his order the
report was spread that it had originally been settled that
the lady-in-waiting was only to remain in attendance
till her young mistress should have grown accustomed
to her new household. On the disturbers of the public
peace, who had bruited about the cafes that the French
army was again in movement, and that Napoleon had but
hoodwinked Austria, Metternich laid a heavy hand, sitting
up till three in the morning receiving police reports

The Meeting 97

and arresting ringleaders. Evidently the enthusiasm for
the French marriage was but skin-deep.

Meanwhile the bride continued her triumphal pro-
gress. Each South German capital received her in state,
with the usual entertainments and the inevitable illumi-
nations. At Rastadt the Crown Prince of Bavaria,
married to Stephanie Beauharnais, Josephine's niece, gave
her luncheon.

Since the 2Oth Napoleon had been waiting her at
Compiegne. Daily he wrote to her, and received replies
by return courier. He had planned her journey, and
knew each day what place she had reached. One day
he let fall the envelope of her letter, a page picked it
up, and the courtiers in the ante-room pressed eagerly to
scrutinize the handwriting of their new Empress.

Just as eager and impatient was Napoleon himself.
He looked really in love. " Every day," writes his valet,
" he sent her a letter in his own hand, and she answered
it regularly. The Empress's first letters were very short,
and probably rather cold, for the Emperor did not say
anything about them. But those following gradually
grew longer and warmer, and the Emperor read them with
transports of delight. . . . He thought the couriers did
not ride fast enough, though they foundered their horses.
One day he came back from shooting with ten pheasants
in his hand, which he had brought down himself, and
was followed by a footman carrying the rarest flowers
from the hot-houses of St. Cloud. He wrote a note,
and sent for his first page, and said to him : c In ten
minutes be ready to start in a carriage. You will find
in it this which I am sending, and you will present it
yourself to the Empress, with this letter. Above all,
do not spare the horses ; go at a page's pace, and fear
nothing ! ' The young man asked nothing better than
to obey His Majesty. Armed with this authority which

98 An Imperial Victim

laid the reins on his horses' necks, he spared not the
pourboires for the postillions, and in twenty-four hours
he was at Strasburg."

Meneval, Napoleon's private secretary, also testifies
to his master's amorous impatience. " He wrote to her
every day with his own hand. When she first set foot
on French soil he sent with his letter the most beautiful
flowers, and sometimes the trophies of his chase. He
was delighted with the answers he received, which were
sometimes rather long. These answers were in good
French, and the feelings in them were expressed with
delicacy and moderation ; perhaps the Queen of Naples
had a finger in them. That Princess sent the Emperor
letters full of details which interested him extremely."

On the part of Marie Louise " it was noticed," says
Madame Durand, •" that she read the Emperor's notes
with increasing interest. She awaited them impatiently,
and if anything delayed the courier's arrival she asked
several times if he were not yet come, and what possible
hindrance could have stopped him. One must, indeed,
believe that this correspondence was very charming, for it
gave rise to a feeling which was soon to become very
strong. On his part Napoleon burnt with desire to see
his young bride ; his vanity was more flattered over
this marriage than over the conquest of an empire.
And what pleased him more still was that she had
consented to it voluntarily."

On March 23, ten days after leaving Vienna, Marie
Louise crossed the gaily-beflagged bridge of boats over
the Rhine, and really touched French soil at last, to the
booming of cannon and the clashing of bells. " It was
in Strasburg," says General de Segur, u that France in its
turn welcomed Marie Louise. The enthusiasm on the
German military frontier was all the more real and
universal and keen because the people saw in the Arch-

The Meeting 99

duchess the most dazzling trophy of the glory of our arms,
and that they imagined that, after eighteen years of war,
she was a hostage of peace, this time to he really lasting.'*

From Strasburg Marie Louise wrote to her father,
excusing herself for a long silence caused by the indescrib-
able fatigues of a journey on which she had to rise at five
in the morning, be on the road all day, and spend the
evenings in receptions or at the theatre. She added that
they had just submitted to her the programme of the
fetes at Strasburg, and asked for her orders. " I cannot
tell you, dear papa, how amusing it seems to me, who
have never had any will of my own, now to have to give
orders."

At Strasburg Metternich made his appearance. He
was en route to Paris, via several German Courts, in order
to enjoy the fruits of all his trouble and anxiety by
sharing in the marriage fetes at Paris, in the society of the
Queen of Naples. Her evil genius had not long let
Marie Louise out of his sight. Another evil genius of
the future was, strange to say, hovering near. For, in a
Strasburg newspaper of that date we read : " Among the
personages present at the fetes we may mention the
Austrian General, Count Neipperg, who was here on a
mission of his Government."

At Strasburg Marie Louise received the first letter
her father had written to her since her departure. She
answered it at once : cc I implore you, dear papa, pray
earnestly for me. Rest assured that I shall put forth all
my strength to fill the post which you have chosen for
me. I am sure I shall be happy. I wish you could read
the letters which the Emperor Napoleon writes to me.
He is full of attentions to me." The intoxication of all
the splendid ovations of which she was the object was
fast reconciling the artless schoolgirl, the docile daughter,
to her fate.

ioo An Imperial Victim

Leaving Strasburg on March 25, and dining at Bar-le-
duc, Marie Louise was gladdened at Vitry le Frai^ois by
meeting familar faces in the shape of Prince Schwarzen-
berg, now Austrian ambassador at Paris, and the Countess
Metternich. She passed on by Chalons and Rheims, and
was to have slept the last night of her journey at Soissons.

Napoleon, surrounded by his Court and his family at
Compiegne, was fretting and fuming over this tedious
journey, impatient to set eyes on his bride. The meeting
had been arranged to take place between Soissons and
Compiegne. In the centre of three richly decorated tents
they were to greet each other ; Marie Louise was to kneel,
the Emperor to raise and embrace her. The Court and
the Imperial family were to be present, cavalry of the
Imperial Guard to form the escort, and in a great state
coach the pair were to pursue their journey together.

But Napoleon to the winds threw all the elaborate
ceremonial he had planned. In the morning Prince
Schwarzenberg and Countess Metternich reached Com-
piegne with the news that they had actually seen Marie
Louise the day before. At noon a letter came from her
herself saying that she was hurrying on her journey, and
would be at Soissons at nightfall. It found Napoleon
walking up and down in the grounds in great impatience.
So near and yet so far !

Sending for Murat, and wrapping himself in his grey
cloak, Napoleon left unobserved by a side-gate. Alone
with his brother-in-law, he got into a small carriage with
no coat of arms on it, driven by a servant in plain clothes,
and tore along the road to Soissons. At the village of
Courcelles he found the Empress's carriage just coming in
to change horses. Sheltering himself from the pouring
rain in the porch of the church just outside the village,
when the carriage stopped he rushed towards it.

Without giving the equerry on duty time to let down

The Meeting 101

the flight of folding-steps by which access was gained to
the cumbersome travelling carriages of the day, Napoleon
leapt in. Imagine the stupefaction of Marie Louise at
this sudden onslaught, when the petrified equerry gasped :
" L'Empereur ! ! ! "

Napoleon flung himself on Marie Louise's neck, and
then seated himself beside her. Murat stepped in and
sat down by his wife.

Marie Louise was the first to recover her self-posses-
sion. Gazing at Napoleon with childish naivete, she said
in a gentle, timid voice :

u Sire, your portrait has not flattered you ! "

And at what did Napoleon gaze ?

" A beautiful Tyrolese girl, fair hair, face coloured
with the whiteness of its snows and the roses of its valleys,
figure slim and willowy, the weighed-down languidness
of the German women who seem to need to lean upon
a man's heart, her gaze full of dreams and inward
horizons veiled with the slight mist of her eyes. . . .
Her bosom full of sighs and fecundity, her arms long,
white, admirably sculptured, and which fell with a languid
grace as if weary of the burden of her destiny, the neck
hanging naturally over the shoulder ... a statue of
Melancholy of the North, exiled in the tumult of a
French camp — a simple, touching nature, shut up in
herself without, full of actions within."

Thus Lamartine, the poet. Further, the more matter-
of-fact private secretary Meneval, who saw her that
evening :

" In the bloom of youth, her figure was perfect ; her
colour was heightened by the exhilaration of the journey
and by her bashfulness ; her fair chestnut hair, fine and
abundant, framed a fresh, full face, over which eyes full
of sweetness shed a charming expression ; her lips, a little
full, recalled the type of the reigning house of Austria,

io2 An Imperial Victim

just as the slightly convex nose distinguishes the Bourbon
family ; her whole person breathed frankness and inno-
cence, and an embonpoint which she lost after her accouche-
ment testified to her good health."

Napoleon was enthralled. Marie Louise was even
better than he had dreamed. At a flying gallop couriers
are despatched to Compiegne to announce that the Im-
perial cortege will arrive there that very night. Soissons,
so gaily decorated, and where dinner is waiting, is passed
through without a halt. The reception-tents are ignored.
Down comes the rain in sheets, but it does not damp
Napoleon's ardour.

At Compiegne all is bustle and preparation. Hurriedly
the decorations are set, the illuminations lit up. Despite
the weather, in the darkness of the night the populace
streams out to the stone bridge on the outskirts, where
Louis XVI. had received Marie Antoinette. At ten
o'clock the roar of guns announces the approach of
the procession, which rattles up the torch-lit avenue.
Becoming drenched in their full-dress uniforms, the
officials of the household wait at the entrance to the
chateau. It is so dark that they cannot see the Empress,
u or I think," writes the Due de Rovigo, " we should
have thrown ourselves under her carnage wheels to
do so."

The Empress passes in. Every eye is fixed on her,
" the perfect embodiment of German girlish beauty and
fashion — in short, as dainty and sweet as a maiden
should be." A group of young girls, all in white, fling
flowers at her feet ; at the foot of the grand staircase
stand the family of her husband ; presented in due form
by the Emperor, they fall in behind her. In the gallery
a crowd of the civil authorities of the town — more
officials — then the welcome sight of a familiar face, Prince
Schwarzenberg. Late though it is, Napoleon cannot

The Meeting 103

delay exhibiting his bride to his favourite sister, Pauline
Borghese, ill and in her room. Then, at last, a private
supper, only the Queen of Naples present.

In the eye of the French law, Marie Louise was not
Napoleon's wife till the civil marriage had been per-
formed. Apartments had, therefore, been prepared for
the Emperor in the chancellerie, adjoining the chateau.

" But had they come and told me that the Tuileries
were on fire," writes the Due de Rovigo, in waiting on
Napoleon that night, u I should not have gone to seek
him there ! "

" Never," wrote Lord Liverpool to Lord Holland,
" was a young woman courted in so strange a fashion,
and never was woman obtained in such a way — Napoleon's
conduct more a rape than a wooing.'1

CHAPTER VII

" THE AMAZING MARRIAGE "

V
EGARDLESS of expense the chateau of Compiegne

A V had been sumptuously redecorated and furnished
for its new mistress. The long gallery had been
adorned with golden friezes and stucco columns, the|
gardens replanted and beautified with statuary, water
had been brought from the Oise to make cascades. A
brilliant Court was now assembled, for Napoleon was
anxious to entirely eclipse that of Vienna. The day
after his arrival there was a great presentation of the
household officials, of officers of the army, of ministers,
who all swore fealty to the new Empress.

A little whiff of home delighted Marie Louise. FOB
besides Schwarzenberg and the Metternichs, her uncle,
the Grand-duke of Wiirzburg, came on a visit, and
she had a long chat with him about her family.

All day long Napoleon was in the highest spirits.
He, who never dressed for dinner, actually arrayed
himself in an elaborate court costume, designed, on the
advice of his sister Pauline, by the tailor of the King
of Naples, who loved fine clothes. But the coat an(
the white tie did not suit Napoleon as well as hi
uniform and a black cravat, and he soon put them
again.

For Vienna at once started the Comte de Preslii
bearing for the Kaiser a letter from Napoleon thankii

104

"The Amazing Marriage" 105

him for the beautiful present he had given him. " May
your paternal heart rejoice in your daughter's happiness."

Marie Louise wrote to her father alluding to the
delicacy with .which Napoleon had spared her a formal
first interview. " Since that moment I am almost on
intimate terms with him ; he is deeply in love with
me, and I return his affection. I am sure I shall live
happily with him. My health continues good. I have
quite got over the fatigues of my journey. I assure
you, my dear father, that the Emperor is as careful
as you are about my health. As I have a little cold,
he does not let me rise before two o'clock. All that
is wanting to my happiness is your dear presence, and my
husband would also like to see you. He wishes it as
sincerely as I do."

A few days later : " I can tell you, my dear father,
that your prophecy is being realized. I am as happy
as possible. The more kindness and trust I show to
my husband, the more he loads me with attentions of
all kinds. The whole family show much affection for me,
and I think the harm people have said about them is not
true. My mother-in-law is a very kind and estimable
Princess, who has received me very well. The Queens of
Naples, Holland, Westphalia, and the King of Holland,
are very kind. I have also made the acquaintance of
the Viceroy and Vicereine of Italy. The Vicereine is
very pretty."

After a few days' rest at Compiegne the Imperial
pair, with their Court and their households in separate
carriages, left for St. Cloud. Passing round Paris by
St. Denis and the Bois de Boulogne, at the boundary of
the department they were presented with an address by
the Prefect of the Seine. It was still daylight when
they reached the palace. Here was waiting the Crown
Prince of Baden, and a throng of dignitaries — marshals,

io6 An Imperial Victim

senators, and Councillors of State in full dress. After
a private dinner there was a presentation and a swearing-
in of the ladies of the Italian household. For Marie
Louise was Queen of Italy as well as Empress of the
French.

On Sunday, April i, in the Apollo Gallery of St
Cloud, where six years before he had accepted the title
of the Emperor from the Senate, was celebrated the
civil marriage of Napoleon with an Emperor's daughter.
From the apartments of the Empress, through the state
rooms, and the Salon d^Hercule, came a long and stately
procession of Imperial and Royal personages. Everything
was done silently and in order. The Emperor and
Empress seated themselves in two arm-chairs, on a dais,
the Court grouped themselves around them. At a table
below stood the Arch-chancellor Cambaceres, beside
him the secretary to the Imperial family, Comte
Regnault de St. Jean d'Angely. In contrast to the
brilliant surroundings, the ceremony was brief in the
extreme.

The Arch-chancellor asked the Emperor : <c Sire, does
Your Majesty intend to take, as legitimate wife, Madame
the Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, here present ? "

Napoleon replied : "Yes, Monsieur."

Then the Arch-chancellor addressed the Empress :
" Madame, do you, of your own free choice, take for
legitimate husband His Majesty, the Emperor Napoleon,
here present? "

She replied, " Yes, monsieur."

The Arch-chancellor then declared :

" In the name of the Empire and the law, I declare
that His Imperial Majesty and King, Napoleon, Emperor
of the French, and Her Imperial Highness and Queen,
the Archduchess Marie Louise, are united in marriage."

The register was then signed by the pair, the Imperial

MARRIAGE OF NAPOLEON I. AND MARIE LOUISE
AT THE TUILER1ES.

107

"The Amazing Marriage " 109

family, and the Grand-duke of Wurzburg, while the
guns at St. Cloud, answered by those at the Invalides,
proclaimed that the deed was done.

After another family dinner-party, followed a per-
formance of Iphigenia in Aulide at the court theatre. It
had been a favourite opera of the bride's ill-fated great-
aunt ; but no one seemed to pay any heed to those
repeated echoes of past misfortunes and these evil
auguries ; for vast crowds streamed out from Paris to
see the illuminations of the gardens and the cascades
of St. Cloud. A violent gale had blown the night before,
in the city it was pouring, but at St. Cloud that evening
all was quiet and dazzling.

Words almost failed the Moniteur to describe,
even in French — a language singularly adapted to the
high falutin — the splendour of the Imperial entry next
day into Paris, and the gorgeousness of the religious
marriage. Napoleon was by now a past-master in the
art of pageantry. This time he surpassed himself.
Never has there been a grander wedding than that of
Marie Louise.

It began early. Before nine o'clock in the morning
the bridal pair left St. Cloud, seated together in the great
state coronation coach, drawn by eight cream horses, and
followed by twenty gilt coaches filled with the Imperial
family and the Court. The cavalry of the Guards formed
the escort, the Marshals of France and great officials
rode alongside the coach, and the entire route was
hedged by spectators, occupying every point of vantage.
Passing through the Bois de Boulogne, and in at the
Porte Maillot, the procession reached the spot in the
Champs Elysees where Napoleon was rearing his Arc de
Triomphe. Here, for twenty days, five thousand work-
men had been busy erecting upon the stone foundations
a reproduction in canvas of the huge archway with its

*— 7

no An Imperial Victim

allegorical figures and its inscriptions as we now know
it. As the coach rumbles out from beneath it, suddenly
the spring sunshine bursts forth and lights up the great
gilt dome, supported by four eagles, through the glass
sides of which the Emperor, in white and red velvet
robes,] and Marie Louise, glittering with the crown
diamonds, are distinctly visible.

All the way down the Champs Elysees are playing
military bands ; cannon boom at the Arc de Triomphe,
the Invalides, and the Tuileries gardens. Suddenly
a halt. It is the Prefect presenting addresses. Marie
Louise replies to him that she loves the city of Paris
because she knows how devoted it is to the Emperor.
Young girls in white hand her baskets of spring flowers ;
the procession moves on.

It moves across the fatal square. It is but sixteen
years ago, and does Marie Louise, in her gala coach,
forget her great-aunt in her tumbril ? Under another
triumphal arch the carriage rolls into the court-yard ol
the gaily decorated Tuileries. In the state apartments
her ladies remove the Empress's court train and place
upon her shoulders the Imperial mantle sewn with bees.
Four Queens carry it — Their Majesties of Naples, West-
phalia, Spain, and Holland. Poor Hortense is forced to
dance attendance at this supreme moment upon the
supplanter of her loved mother. By the Pavilion de
Flore Marie Louise passes to the Gallerie de Diane,
where the bridal procession is formed. Down the entire
length of the great gallery of the Louvre Museum it
marches between rows of gaily-dressed spectators, the
haute bourgeoisie of Paris, to the number of some eight
thousand, who have whiled away the weary hours of
waiting in consuming refreshments and enjoying the
orchestra's performance of special music composed by
Paer, the Empress's concert director.

"The Amazing Marriage " m

The Salle Carrie, at the corner, preceding the Galerie
d' Apollo, has been tranformed into a chapel, resplendent
with the masterpieces of sacred art. Here are in readiness
Cardinal Fesch and the Paris ecclesiastical dignitaries.
But, when Napoleon enters, and glances round the clergy,
his brow grows black.

" Where are the cardinals ? " he asks angrily of his
private chaplain, the Abbe de Pradt.

u A great number are here," timidly replies the chaplain.
"But some are old and infirm."

" No, they are not here ! " exclaims Napoleon in
a rage. « The fools ! the fools ! "

And, indeed, the thirteen Italian cardinals, who, in
consequence of Napoleon having been placed under
the ban of the Pope, had announced that they would
take no part in the marriage ceremony, had not put
in an appearance. For an excommunicated person can
only receive any of the sacraments from a priest. Other
clergy cannot be present. The cardinals' action had
nothing to do with the divorce.

For the rest of the ceremony Napoleon looked
annoyed. At a supreme moment his might had been
flaunted, his pride wounded. Yet nothing was lacking
of ecclesiastical pomp in the splendid scene. Cardinal
Fesch sang the Nuptial Mass, the Archbishop handed
the bridal pair the Gospel to kiss, and censed them.
A^superbly chanted Te Deum concluded the ceremony,
after which the procession returned as it had come.
Marie Louise's state robes were removed and handed to
the Grand Chamberlain, who carried them in state to
the Treasury of Notre Dame, to be laid with those
worn by Napoleon at his coronation.

Then the Emperor and Empress showed themselves
on the balcony of the Salle des Marechaux, and the
Imperial Guard, marching past, cheered them frantically.

ii2 An Imperial Victim

It was immediately after this — in the interval before
the state banquet, the public concert in the gardens,
and the illuminations reaching from the Tuileries to the
Champs Elysees, more magnificent than had ever yet
been seen in a period which raised devices in oil
lamps and transparencies to a fine art — before this
dazzling ending to a dazzling day, that Napoleon sprung
upon his bride a touching little surprise, which shows
him as a man with a kind heart as well as a resplendent
sovereign. Let it be told in the words of that most
partial chronicler, the Duchesse d'Abrantes. When
Marie Louise was leaving her home for France, •" she
wept every day at the mere thought of parting from her
family. One knows that in Austria the ties of relation-
ship are something sacred, which seems to us French
people hardly right. But it is a fact that even under
Marie Theresa and the dry and astute rule of Kaunitz
these family bonds were held dear and respected. Marie
Louise, brought up in these principles, wept not only at
the thought of leaving her sister and her father, and,
perhaps even, her step-mother, but also at the idea of
going to a man who must have been an object of terror
to her. Also for that I cannot blame her, and if she
had never shed but such tears I would shed some over
her to-day. But she replaced them by sweet looks,
by words of love, by tender smiles. . . . What I shall
never forgive her is not only to have forgotten, but
also to have repudiated. That is what my soul will
always consider an act of treachery towards one who
loved her with love ! . . . But enough of those thoughts ;
they make my heart burn.

c< The day of departure drew near. The Empress
took leave of her father, of her step-mother, of her
sisters and brothers, then she returned to her apartments,
there to await Berthier, who, according to etiquette, was

"The Amazing Marriage " 113

to fetch her thence and lead her to the carriage. When
he entered the study, where she had retired, he found
her bathed in tears, and in a voice broken with sobs
she told him that she was sorry to appear so weak
before him. c But judge if I am not excusable,* she
said. * See, I am surrounded by a thousand objects
which are dear to me. These drawings are my sisters',
this wool-work was worked by my mother, my uncle
Charles painted these pictures/ and she went on with
the inventory of her boudoir, not a mat but had been
given her by some loving hand — and then the birds
in the aviary — a parrot. But the most important object,
the most regretted, making on his part as much noise in
his grief — that object was a dog.

" It has been made known to the Court of Vienna
how those wretched dogs of Josephine, beginning with
Fortune, which had the honour to take part in the
Italian campaigns, and which had its rib broken by an
ill-mannered dog, had annoyed the Emperor. Therefore
Francis II., like a prudent father, took care that his
daughter left her dog at Vienna, and did not take any
of her animals with her. But the separation was not
the less cruel, and the young Empress and her dog made
a duet of lamentation.

" There was, however, in their lamentations the sign
of a kindness of heart, which was understood by Berthier,
who is himself kind.

" Seeing all this grief where he wished only to see
transport and delight, an idea struck him which he acted
upon at once.

" c On the contrary, I came to warn Your Majesty/
he said to Marie Louise, ( that she will not leave for
two hours, and I crave permission to retire till the
moment of departure.'

" And withdrawing at once, he went to the Emperor,

ii4 An Imperial Victim

to whom he confided his plan. Francis II. is the best
of men and of fathers, and he understood exactly what
was required of him. Berthier gave his orders, and,
as he had said, in two hours all was ready. He came
to fetch the Empress. They started. She reached France.
There she saw fetes and wonders and half forgot her
parrot and her dog. Then they reached Compiegne. . . .
You know how the carriage stopped, how a man sprang
into it without a word, and took his place beside her
who was still only his fiancee, and to whom he had
vowed a fidelity which was never violated by him till the
moment of his death . . . that death which came as
a charity to him, and for which long years of agony
had made him cry aloud. Then came the honeymoon of
the young bride. All the happiness which surrounded her
was so radiant that her eyelids sank before its splendour.
They came to St. Cloud — then to Paris. It was then
that one of the last smiles of Fortune fell on the he;
of her favourite surrounded by an aureole of glory,
when the latter, taking the hand of this young woman,
whom he thought a hostage of peace and eternal
alliance, presented her to the people crowding beneatl
the Imperial balcony of the Tuileries. How that da]
of joy, the cries of * Vive TEmpereur ! ' shook the very
foundations of the old Louvre ! { Vive 1'Empereur ! '
c Vive rimperatrice ! * cried a hundred thousand voices,
and he, all trembling with happiness, intoxicated with
a joy hitherto unknown which came flooding his heart,
pressed between his own one little hand, which then
knew how to answer him, and answered him with
love.

" When they had withdrawn from the balcony he
said to her : * Come, Louise, I must repay you for th<
happiness which you have just given me ! '

" And, dragging her quickly into one of those dai

"The Amazing Marriage " 115

corridors which even in broad daylight are lighted only
by a lamp, he made her walk very fast.

u * Where are we going to ? ' asked the Empress.

" * Come along ! You are not afraid with me, are
you ? ' and he drew near to him the young wife, clasping
her to his heart, which beat with a delicious emotion.
Suddenly he stopped at a closed door — a noise was
heard — it was a dog which had heard, or rather smelt,
those who were approaching ; it was scratching on the
other side of the door. The Emperor opened gently
a well-lighted room, where the brightness of the day-
light at first prevented her from distinguishing what she
saw — then the objects became more distinct — they de-
tached themselves into flames of fire to strike her heart.
She leant upon the breast of Napoleon and burst into tears.

" Do you know what caused this emotion ? It was
that Marie Louise, Empress of the greatest of Empires,
found once more in the midst of the triumphal pomps
of the glory, shared with a husband who was the greatest
man in the universe, Marie Louise found once more,
through him, those joys of childhood, those family
delights, those souvenirs, which assured her that he to
whom her father had confided her happiness would
render a good and faithful account. ... At that time
she could still feel, and she showed it in the quick
emotion which she manifested. The Emperor clasped
her to his heart, and softly kissed her cheeks, so blooming,
all bathed in tears. What happiness those two then
enjoyed ! In that moment of ecstasy 'the news of a
victory would perhaps have found Napoleon deaf to
the tidings. But the Empress ran delightedly round the
boudoir furnished with her own arm-chairs, her rugs, the
sketches by her sisters, her birdcages, and even her dog !
The poor little creature seemed afraid to come near her.

" c Are you happy, Louise ? ' asked the Emperor,

n6 An Imperial Victim

For all reply she threw herself again in his arms. They
were near the window, and, although it was shut, one
could see the tumult outside, and hear the cheers which
shook the walls sent up to the sky by the people. . . .
Marie Louise drew away, blushing, to the back of the
boudoir. . . . Napoleon began to laugh, and made her
kiss him in the corner where she had taken refuge.
At that moment a slight noise was heard through the
half-open door, and Berthier's head appeared. The
Emperor took his hand and drew him in.

" ' Here, Louise/ he said to the Empress. ' I have
had the reward, but he has earned it. It was his idea,
on seeing your tears, to have all this taken here to
soften what, by the bye, were very natural regrets. There,
kiss him too, that he may be rewarded.*

" Berthier had tears in his eyes. He took the hand
of Marie Louise, but the Emperor pushed him gently
towards her : ' No, no, not like that ! Kiss her, my
old friend ! '

" And that is the man whom the one abandoned, and
the other forgot, ere hardly he had shipwrecked in exile.'*

But what of the thirteen defaulting cardinals — the
black cardinals, they were dubbed ?

When, two days later, the Emperor received the
Chamber, the Senate, the great bodies of the State, they
made their appearance among the crowd, and not without
misgiving. But they were turned out incontinently before
the arrival of the Emperor. He abused them angrily to
their more pliant colleagues, confiscated their property
private and official, and, exiling them from Paris, rele-
gated them to different towns in France under police
surveillance.

This episode must, for Louise la Pieuse, have cast a
cloud over her wedding-day.

CHAPTER VIII

THE WEDDING TOUR

T AM as happy as it is possible to be. What my
1 father told me has come true. I find the Emperor
exceedingly kind. We suit each other perfectly," writes
i Marie Louise to her father, at the beginning of the
I three weeks' comparatively quiet honeymoon at Com-
ipi&gne — quiet she sorely needed after the excitement and
fatigue of the last month.

To Victoire de Poutet, congratulating her on her
engagement to the Comte de Crenneville, she writes :

" I am very sincerely grateful to you for the wishes
you send in your letter of March 26 on the occasion of
my marriage. Heaven has fulfilled them. May you
isoon enjoy a happiness similar to that I am experiencing,
and which you so much deserve ! you can rest assured
that no one wishes it more than your devoted friend,
Marie Louise."

At Compiegne people were delighted to see Napoleon
aux "petit s soins for his bride. Every day he invited people
to dine whom he wished her to know ; she was very shy,
and it was pleasant to notice how kind he was to her.
Daily he took dejeuner with her at a fixed hour, " he who
never ate unless he was hungry," and dined with her
always. Napoleon was now forty-one, and though already
inclined to be too stout, was better-looking than in his
youth. He hardly ever left Marie Louise, neglecting

117

ii8 An Imperial Victim

affairs, giving fewer private audiences, arriving two hours
late sometimes at Councils of State, because he could not
tear himself away from his bride. He had found in her
what he never found in Josephine — innocence. The
novelty of her frank girlishness charmed him. What a
change from the mature, sensual seductiveness of the
Creole !

No doubt, that, on her side, Marie Louise was very
happy. The ovations and adulations of which she was
the object would have turned an older and stronger;
head. How changed her life from that of her girlhood,!
but a month or two ago ! And Napoleon, too, how!
different from what she had imagined !

" I assure you, dear papa," she writes, " that the!
Emperor has been very much maligned ; the more one
gets to know him, the more one appreciates and likes
him."

She did not love Napoleon ; no one ever loved himj
But she had fallen under the compelling influence of his
marvellous magnetic personality. With no one before or
after did Napoleon take such pains to ingratiate himself,
and Marie Louise was soon a victim to his fascination.
But she never quite lost her awe of him.

A kindly letter from her step-mother to Napoleon
throws a light on Marie Louise's character. It was a
reply early in April to a letter from him " which filled
me with joy by the assurance it gives me that Yoi
Majesty is satisfied with the object which we hai
entrusted to him. My maternal heart felt it all the m<
as I was anxious as to such a satisfactory result. But
to-day, reassured by Your Majesty, I have no further
fear, and can give myself joyfully to the happiness
of sharing that of my beloved daughter. The latter has
sent me such a touchingly sincere account, and I cannot
repeat too often how se nsible she is to the tender attej

The Wedding Tour 119

tions with which she has been loaded from the first
moment she saw you. Her one desire is to please Your
Majesty, and I flatter myself that she will succeed, for I
understand her character thoroughly, and it is an excellent
one. Louise has promised me to write very regularly,
which pleasant intercourse repays me for a loss which I
regret acutely. It is so nice to be able to converse with a
being one loves, and I can truly say that I feel for her the
tenderness of a mother, which she has won by her conduct
towards me, treating me as a real friend.

" Will Your Majesty listen to me, and thus draw out
the best result from the candour of her soul ! If I can
take credit for anything it is to have carefully preserved
this candour, which, though at first it will seem timid in
the eyes of the world, will gain her the respect and

friendship of Your Majesty.

" I may perhaps be blamed in that my daughter has

but few ideas and but little knowledge. I agree, but as
I to the world and its dangers, they are known only too
j soon, and I will frankly avow that, as she is but eighteen,
| I preferred jealously to guard her innocence, and I was
I concerned but to cultivate in her a heart and feeling, an

upright mind, and clear ideas about what she knew. It
I is to Your Majesty that I have handed her over. As the
j mother, I beg you to be the friend, the guide of my
i daughter as well as the most affectionate husband ; she
i will be happy if Your Majesty allows her to turn to you
I with confidence upon every occasion ; for, I repeat, she
| is young, and too defenceless to meet the dangers of the
I world without a guide, or to play her part adequately."
Marie Louise conquered her new family. Catherine,

the wife of King Jerome of Westphalia, the only real

royalty of the circle, said that " it was impossible to see

her without loving her."

" My mother-in-law," wrote Marie Louise, " is a

120 An Imperial Victim

most estimable and kind Princess, who welcomed me most
kindly.*' But at first the august new daughter-in-law
had no attractions for the somewhat dour Madame
Merc. " A weak, insignificant character," she remarked,
and Marie Louise found out her mother-in-law's want
of confidence in her. Later, they became great friends.
One day, at a family gathering, Napoleon held out his
hand for his mother to kiss. The old lady pushed it
away, exclaiming : " Am I not your mother, and you the
first and foremost of my sons ? " " Maman" said Marie
Louise, " when I was at Vienna I always kissed the
Emperor of Austria's hand." " The Emperor of Austria
is your father, my child ; the Emperor of the French is
my son ; that's the difference."

The first tears that Marie Louise shed since her
arrival from Austria were on Napoleon's first visit to
Josephine. She wept, and tried every device to prevent
his going. He noticed that she was jealous, and when
he subsequently took her to call at Malmaison, as he;
did occasionally, he took great care only to walk with
Josephine in full view of the terrace where Marie Louise
sat. The latter's very natural feeling towards her pre-
decessor did not last long ; after the birth of the child
Marie Louise no longer looked upon Josephine as a rival.

Napoleon had taken infinite pains over the appoint-
ments to the young Empress's personal suite. He would
tolerate none of the laxity of Josephine's court neai
Marie Louise. The beautiful Duchesse de Montebell<
<c une vierge de Raphael," had been picked out as dcu
d'honneur on account of her late husband, Marsh;
Lannes, Napoleon's old friend and most brilliant coi
panion-in-arms, who fell at Essling. Lannes had marriec
in his own bourgeois class, a Mademoiselle Guehemen<
Something of a swashbuckler, Bonapartist to the coi
hating the emigres and the old noblesse, he, nevertheless

The Wedding Tour 121

,did not disdain to accept the title of Due as a reward
of his services, but even openly gave out that he ex-
pected that of Prince. In the first few years of her
married life the Duchesse de Montebello was but little
:seen at Court, as her husband insisted on her following
him everywhere ; but her sweet, beautiful face, her
gentle manners, made her popular in spite of some cold-
ness and stiffness. When she entered Maria Louise's
'service she was about thirty, with several little children,
,and one of the most beautiful women at Court. She
'bore the highest character, " a real lady of honour," said
'Napoleon, when he offered the appointment. But she
!had not the tone of good society, the tact, or the savoir-
faire, to enable her to live so near the throne. Domestic,
idevoted to her children and her home, naturally indolent,
land with no wish to do anything outside her ordinary
routine, she was also a little blunt and short in her
imanner, and too proud to be deceitful, she was too out-
spoken and frank in what she said. Not popular among
pe other ladies, she was not pleasant in her manner to
ithem. They were probably jealous of the ascendancy
iwhich she rapidly acquired over their mistress. For the
Duchesse de Montebello's good qualities were just those
fco attract the shy, untutored girl, whose heart was sore
at the loss of her childhood's mentor, the Countess
Lazansky. Marie Louise soon trusted her implicitly.
Besides a man on whom she could lean — and in Napoleon
^he had replaced her father — she also always needed all
|her life a woman friend and confidante. To Colloredo
ind her daughter, and Lazansky, now succeeded Monte-
bello. The latter certainly repaid her confidence by the
greatest devotion at the time of her confinement. Later
on, as we shall see, at a crucial period of Marie Louise's
life, the Duchesse's influence was used to the Empress's
undoing. In justification of her conduct then, it must

122 An Imperial Victim

be said that the Duchesse never really liked Napoleon,
and always regarded him as responsible for her husband's
death.

The Cotnte de Beauharnais, a relation of Josephine's
first husband, who had been her chevalier d'honneur, was
appointed to that post with the new Empress. Napoleon
had wished to give it the Comte de Narbonne, a man
of fifty, of the old regime, who had served Marie
Antoinette. But the Empress did not care for the old
noblesse. Great names had no charm for her ; she was
accustomed to them from her birth. Perhaps, also, she
half suspected their bearers of looking down upon her
as having made a mesalliance. Therefore, either from
pride, or superstition, or perhaps merely from kindness,
Beauharnais was appointed, for " the Empress, generally
so gently submissive to her husband, this time showed a
will in opposition to his," and even gained her point with
tears. Moreover, and which counted for much, the
Duchesse de Montebello did not care for the witty old
courtier, having Beauharnais more under her thumb.

Between the dame d'honneur and the dame d'atours
there was no love lost. Gentle, well-mannered, irreproach-
able in character, and thoroughly au fait at Court,
where she had spent many years, the Comtesse de Lu£ay
was the wife of a fermier-general of the old regime.
One of the first to attach himself to Napoleon, he was
made prefet du Calais and his wife dame du palais to
Josephine. Napoleon was so satisfied with her that he
appointed her to Marie Louise's household.

Besides the ladies-in-waiting, whose duties were offici
and connected with state occasions, and the dame d"ato\
the Empress was given six dames d'annonce^ at fii
so designated because it was their duty to annoum
people to whom she gave audience. These were tl
widows and daughters of generals, chosen especially from

The Wedding Tour 123

among the superintendents of the institution for officers1
'daughters which the Emperor had founded at Ecouen.
Below the dames rfannonce were six femmes de chambrc,
who only came when they were rung for. But the
dames d'annonce, or premieres dames, or lectrices as they
were finally called, spent the whole day with the Empress.
jThey sat with her while she took her music, drawing,
or embroidery lessons ; they wrote letters to her dicta-
jtion or order ; they read aloud to her. They wore
!red silk aprons, and Napoleon dubbed them les femmes
rouges, in contradistinction to the femmes de chambres,
ks femmes noires, who wore black.

The femmes rouges on duty, two at a time, came
to the Empress before she rose and did not leave her
till she was in bed. Then all the doors leading to her
room were locked, except that into the room next door
where the dame d'annonce in waiting slept. Even the
jEmperor could not reach his wife's apartment without
[passing through this one. Except the dame a"honneur>
(and the dame d'atours, the Empress received nobody
without making an appointment for the audience.
Especially did Napoleon wish her to be shielded from
court intrigue and the designs of toadies.

Twelve ladies'-maids were appointed. Six had charge
f the Empress's jewels and diamonds, six others, selected
from among the ladies'-maids of the ladies-in-waiting
)r from workwomen, dressed her, brushed her hair, fitted
)n her dresses for the dressmakers, and had charge of
ler wardrobe. Napoleon removed Josephine's coiffeur
rom her without informing her, and appointed him to
Vlarie Louise ! To her new suite Marie Louise was
as charming and considerate as she always was to those
of all ranks in her service. She evoked, as ever, loyalty
and affection. "The kindness," says Madame Durand,
dame d'annonce, " shown by their sovereign smoothed

124 An Imperial Victim

all disagreeables, and they served her more from affection
than from duty."

In his anxiety to shield her innocence Napoleon j
enclosed Marie Louise in what was practically a harem, i
With the exception of her doctor, her private and her
financial secretary, no man was admitted to her private \
apartments without an order from the Emperor himself ! ;•
How particular he was " that no man should boast of*
having ever been two seconds alone with the Empress,"1
two anecdotes from Madame Durand illustrate.

" The jeweller Biennais had made for the Empress
a deed-box fastened by several locks the secret of which
was to be known by her alone, and it was necessary
that he should show her the mechanism. Marie Louise
mentioned the matter to her husband, who allowed her
to receive Biennais, and the latter was ordered to St.
Cloud. When he arrived he was shown into the music-
room ; he was at one end of it with Her Majesty, and
a premiere dame, Madame D., was in the same apartment,
but sufficiently far away not to hear the instructions the
jeweller was giving her. Just as they were finished the
Emperor came in, and, seeing Biennais, inquired who
the man was. The Empress hastened to give his name
and to explain why he had come and that leave had
been given by the Emperor himself for him to be
admitted to her presence. But the Emperor denied
that this last was the case, made out that the dams
d'annonce was in the wrong, and administered to her a
severe talking to which the Empress had all the trouble
in the world to stop, though she said to him : * But,
mon ami, it was I who ordered Biennais to come ! ' The
Emperor laughed, and said that that was not her affair,
but that the lady alone was responsible for those she
let in, that she had done wrong, and that he hoped that
it would not happen again."

The Wedding Tour 125

This is the second incident. u Marie Louise had a
music-master, who had been her mother's, M. Pae'r.
One day, as he was giving his lesson, the dame d'annonce,
the same Madame D., had an order to give. She opened
a door, and half of her body passed through it ; she
gave the order, and at that moment Napoleon came in,
and, not immediately perceiving her, thought that she
was not there. The music-master departed, and then
Napoleon demanded where the lady was when he entered.
She told him that she had not left the room ; he would
not believe it, and made her a long sermon, adding
emphatically : ' Madame, I honour and respect the
Empress, but the sovereign of a great Empire should
be placed above the attempt even of a suspicion/ '

Verily an old poacher makes a good gamekeeper !

Napoleon also complained to Metternich one day that
Madame de Montebello, walking in the grounds of
St. Cloud with her mistress, had presented to the latter
some young men, her cousins. He thought that this
was monstrous, that it might lead to intrigues, to people
begging favours of the Empress, and he begged Metter-
nich, as he had known her all her life, to point this out
to her, lest she should think him a jealous and exacting
husband, but that " she was young and inexperienced,
and unused to French people and to this country."

Napoleon was by nature too restless to enjoy even
his honeymoon long. On April 27 the Emperor and
Empress left for a progress through the northern
provinces and Holland, which had recently come under
his immediate jurisdiction, owing to the abdication of his
brother Louis. The journey was a triumphal march ;
family royalties swelled the train — sparkling sister Caro-
line ; u petit polisson" brother Jerome; his devoted
Queen, good Catherine, whose father Napoleon had
made a king ; step-son Eugene, the Italian Viceroy.

126 An Imperial Victim

Then there were the Austrians — the Duke of Wdrz-
burg, Metternich, Schwarzenberg, dragged at the victor's
triumphal car to be impressed with his powers as an
administrator and a ruler, to be shown that Napoleon
was as great an authority on naval matters as he was on
military. Between Mons and Brussels the maire of a
small town erected a triumphal arch of turf across the
high road, bearing this inscription : <c En epousant Marie
Louise," " Napoleon n'a pas fait une sottise " — which
amused her so much that she would not allow Napoleon
a moment's rest till he had bestowed the order of the
Legion of Honour on its author.

Everywhere the union was acclaimed with wild enthu-
siasm. At one little hamlet, where the good cure and the
maire offered her flowers, hung a shield with this simple
inscription : " Pater noster," and on the reverse side :
" Ave Maria ! gratiae plena." Could adulation go further?

The first night was spent at St. Quentin, where the
great canal joining the Scheldt and the Seine was just
finished. The Imperial party and their suites passed
through a tunnel, still dry, and brilliantly illuminated for
them. Then on to Brussels, and by boat down the canal
to Malines. On to Antwerp by water in man-o'-war's
boats to inspect the naval squadron there, which was
Napoleon's creation, then the entry into Antwerp amid
the smoke of the saluting guns, like a naval battle.

At Antwerp a week was spent, Napoleon occupi<
with naval affairs, and Marie Louise, who saw a
eighty-gun man-of-war launched, enjoying herself, and
" affable, simple, without pretension," writes M6neval,
in attendance on Napoleon. "The memory of the
charms and of a certain seductiveness of Josephine
perhaps somewhat detracted from Marie Louise. On<
might have attributed her reserve to the pride of hei
German dynasty ; it was nothing of the kind ; no on<

The Wedding Tour 127

had more simplicity and less haughtiness. Her natural
timidity, and the novelty of the part she was called upon
to play, alone gave her the appearance of stiffness. She
had so entirely identified herself with her new position,
and was so touched by the consideration and the affection
which the Emperor showed her, that when he suggested
that she should wait for him at Antwerp during the little
tour he was about to make in the island of Zeeland, she
implored him to take her with him, without fearing for
her the fatigues of the journey."

The Empress wrote congratulations to Victoire de
Poutet upon her marriage, hoping that she " may enjoy
as lasting happiness as myself." Delighted to find that
her friend had been married the same month as herself,
she hopes that all is working to make the marriages
resemble each other, and that " you may become the
mother of a fine child the same time as I do, for already
I have hopes." The Emperor, " with a graciousness and
obligingness which is so natural to him," at once ac-
quiesced in the Empress's wish to sign her friend's
marriage contract, and which she is delighted to do as
a proof that u I still retain for you the devotion I have
vowed to you since my childhood."

At Middleberg, on the island of Walcheren, only
evacuated by the English four months previously, " for
the first time yesterday I have seen the ocean " (sic).
Picking up shells on the shore with her sister-in-law,
the Queen of Westphalia, they were caught by the tide
and wetted from head to foot, and, boarding a battle-ship,
the Empress sprained her ankle.

The Imperial party returned up the Scheldt to
Antwerp, and then spent three days at the chateau of
Laeken, and attended a gala performance at the Theatre
de Je Monnaie at Brussels. Upon rising to acknowledge
the applause of verses in her honour, Marie Louise

128 An Imperial Victim

fainted dead away — an incident which gave rise to many
comments and hopes. Then they drove rapidly by
Ghent, Bruges, and Ostend, to the northern French
seaports as far as Havre. Thence Marie Louise wrote
a congratulatory letter to Countess Colloredo on her
daughter's happiness, which was full of ardent longing
that she herself might become a mother : " I have stood
the journey well, but it was rather fatiguing." Indeed
it had been one long scene of fetes and receptions
and balls, of dazzling illuminations and gay triumphal
arches, accompanied by delirious popular enthusiasm.
By the ist of June they were back again at St. Cloud,
by way of Rouen.

The Kaiserinn, now at Carlsbad, being adulated by
Goethe, wrote to her husband : " I hear from Laeken,
from Louise, who is very sad over signs of pregnancy ;
she writes she is all in love, then dances and speaks
of long receptions, grumbles over twenty different things,
such as a sprained foot, colic, fever, dulness, oppression
on her breast, nerves ; then writes eight letters, dances,
goes everywhere, and describes all the fashions. She
hates England, not so much the French, and so on. I
only say that so it is at eighteen. God keep her in good
principles.'*

"When she had returned from the Belgian journey,"
writes Rovigo, " the Empress had gained a knowledge
of the French people, she had been well received every-
where, and had begun to be accustomed to a country
where everything she saw gave her the hope of a long and
happy stay in it. She had received an excellent training
which had imbued her with the idea that a woman shoul(
have no will for her own, because she could not know foi
what she was destined ; if it had been a question of goinj
to live in the desert, she would not have made the least
objection — a passive temperament, which, later on, did

The Wedding Tour 129

so much harm. People began to like her, and to con-
gratulate themselves on having a sovereign above intrigues,
and who could favour any one without having to dread
the gossip of the Court. People who came to Court for
the first time, and saw her less, mistook for haughtiness
the natural timidity which she retained till the day she
left us. These people were wrong, and I think they
took too much upon themselves by their way of com-
paring everything to the old Court of Versailles. One
thing, however, contributed to make the Empress shy
during the first months of her stay in France, and that
was that she spoke French less fluently on arrival than
she did afterwards. She understood it well, but in any
conversation in which she was obliged to be careful
of what she was saying, the construction of our sentences
demanded from her some caution, so that she was obliged,
as it were, to translate the German sentences, which came
to her without any hesitation, into the French language,
which did not come so quickly. She never perceived
how the slight embarrassment which one noticed in her
on such occasions added a charm."

This probably explains how it was that the Duchesse
d'Abrantes, away in Spain, heard such criticisms from her
court cronies of the deportment of their new Empress,
that she u received all the homage with a sort of indiffer-
ence, and, from what I heard, nothing led me to suppose
that she would be later the gracious, welcoming, protecting
joy and happiness of her Court."

Cardinal Maury, however, wrote to the Duchesse in a
very enthusiastic strain : " It would be a useless endeavour
to try and make you understand how the Emperor loves
the Empress. It is love, but it is love indeed this time.
He is in love, I tell you, and in love as he has never been
with Josephine, for, after all, he never knew her young.
She was over thirty when they were married, whereas

130 An Imperial Victim

this one is young and fresh as spring-time. You will
see her and be enchanted."

Especially was the Cardinal taken with —

Le teint blanc de Louise,
Et la taille elancee.

Madame de Boigne, however, thought her only a fine
woman, fresh, too high-coloured, very vulgar, no dis-
tinction, and quite outshone by Pauline Borghese, who
looked younger.

On the other hand, Bausset, prefet du palais, was
favourably impressed by her kindness, which she carried
into social life. " It was easy to perceive that she had a
mind naturally high-principled, much information without
any ostentation, a dignified and touching simplicity, and
a sweet cheerfulness which went well with her features.
She loved art, was an excellent musician, sketched well,
and rode with gracefulness and dignity, spoke French
well, wrote it still better, and knew Italian and English.
From this ensemble of valuable accomplishments a most
happy and attractive personality resulted."

" Her very timidity," says Comte Rambuteau, " added
a certain charm to her, there was something so pathetically
affecting in her. She inspired her surroundings with
a mixture of respect and sympathy, and these feelings,
added to a general conviction of her real omnipotence,
won all hearts for her. I was at every fete and was
often selected to open the state balls, while I was waiting
for my special duties to begin, which they did after the
journey to the Trianon, where the Emperor took the
Empress to rest at the beginning of her pregnancy."

The month of June was crowded with some of the
most magnificent festivities the world has ever seen.
Napoleon was determined that Marie Louise's Court
should not only eclipse that of the old regime in

The Wedding Tour 131

brilliancy and pleasure, but also be far superior to that
of the Hapsburgs — viel roche, exclusive and stiff above
all those in Europe — in dignity, ceremonial, and the
rigid etiquette.

4< Never," says Alfred de Musset, " have there been
so many sleepless nights as in the time of this man . . .
never so much joy, so much life, so many warlike
fanfares in all hearts. Never were more brilliant suns
than those which dried up all this blood. People said
that God made them for this man, and they called them
the suns of Austerlitz."

It was the time of year when Paris is most beautiful.
All that could be devised in light, colour, sound, and
motion was pressed into service for the fetes, which
resembled each other so much that description becomes
wearisome. The city of Paris set the ball rolling. The
fete began in the morning with public amusements for
the people ; at nightfall superb illuminations, a gigantic
ballet of Mars and Flora, on a stage ; it wound up with
free refreshments. Arriving from St. Cloud in a torch-
light procession, the Imperial pair viewed the fireworks
and flaming tableaux from the H6tel de Ville. At the
ball which followed the Empress danced with the
royalties in the first quadrille. They left at midnight,
but fifteen hundred guests danced and supped till dawn.

A few days later Princess Borghese gave a ball. To
her new sister-in-law she paid a delicate compliment in
shape of a performance on an illuminated lawn of a
ballet in which the dancers were dressed as Viennese
peasants, while the background was the chateau of
Laxeuburg on fire. Feltre, the Minister of War, gave a
ball. But the grandest fete of all was that given on
the Champs de Mars by the Imperial Guard. Marie
Louise said she had never seen anything so lovely.
It had been preparing for months. The Ecole Militaire

i32 An Imperial Victim

was a mass of flowers. When the Emperor and Empress
entered at seven o'clock three thousand ladies, each with
a bouquet in her hand, rose up ; the whole place became
one vast nosegay. The wives of Napoleon's most
distinguished marshals formed a body-guard for Marie
Louise. In the Champs de Mars 400,000 spectators
watched the horse and chariot races ; Madame Blanchard,
the aerostat, went up in a balloon ; fireworks followed a
ball, and, after the departure of the Imperial guests,
1,500 people sat down to supper at two o'clock in the
morning.

But the ball given on the ist of July at the Austrian
Embassy by Napoleon's old antagonist Schwarzenberg,
was to surpass everything. As the hotel was not large
enough for the 1,500 dancers, a wooden ballroom had
been built out in the garden, hung with gold and silver
brocade, chandeliers, and candelabras. It was a fairy
scene ; C£ there were flowers enough to pay for a palace."
On arrival Napoleon and Marie Louise made a tour of
the apartments, found a musical or theatrical surprise
in every saloon, a concert and a ballet in the garden,
with Laxenburg on fire again as a background. The first
quadrille only began at midnight. The Emperor came
down from the dais where the Royalties were sitting and
passed round chatting to people. Never had he seemed
gayer and happier, offering favours, urging people to dance.

Then, suddenly, a window-curtain caught fire at
sconce. In a few instants the flames spread like w*il<
fire — there were no firemen in readiness !

Metternich, standing at the foot of the dais, ran u]
to Marie Louise and begged her to follow him out
quietly to avoid a panic. The wretched ambassador
to Napoleon : " Sire, I know how this hall is built — il
is doomed : but there are so many exits that no on<
runs any risk. Sire, I will cover you with my body ! '

The Wedding Tour 133

Fearing an Austrian plot, the officers of the Imperial
Guard formed round Napoleon with drawn swords. The
latter took the Empress by the hand and led her out by
the garden. Getting into the first carriage they found in
the court-yard, they drove as far as the Place Louis XV.
Here Napoleon got down, and, while Marie Louise drove
back to St. Cloud, he returned to the Embassy to see
if he could help at the fire.

Meanwhile the scene there baffles description. In an
incredibly short time the ballroom had become one vast
furnace, fanned by the night-wind. The sudden panic
among the happy dancers, and the crush, were terrific.
Beams and chandeliers crashed down amidst the screaming
and the shouting ; doors were blocked, and ladies and
girls trampled on ; people rushed hither and thither, they
knew not why or wherefore, madly searching in the dense
smoke for exits. Overhead crackled and roared the flames.
The Queen of Westphalia, fainting, was rescued by
Metternich. The Queen of Naples, Prince Eugene and
his wife — in a delicate state of health — still remained on
the dais. Then the Queen attempted to escape by the
door through which the Emperor and Empress had fled.
But she was enveloped in the crowd and only saved by
the Grand-duke of Wttrzburg and a marshal. Eugene
was able to remove his wife by the side-door. The
hostess of the evening was carried to her husband un-
conscious, but safe ; but his brother, mad with terror,
sought t his wife, who had rushed back into the burning
hall to rescue her young daughter, who had formed part
of the gay crowd dancing a schottische. She found her,
the two managed almost to reach the top of the stairs ;
the crowd separated them. The mother, missing the
daughter, turned back to find her, and was seen no more
alive.

Napoleon, on his return to the burning building,

134 An Imperial Victim

behaved with the courage and coolness which might
have been expected of him. At 4 a.m. he was back
at St. Cloud, dusty, torn, scorched, black. He went
straight to his wife's rooms to see if she was upset by
the danger and the catastrophe. Then he returned to
his room, and, throwing his hat on his bed, exclaimed
to his valet ; c< Mon Dieu ! Quel fete ! "

Next day the air was thick with rumours of killed
and wounded. The Russian ambassador had fallen sense-
less in the midst of the flames ; only the thickness of
the gold lace with which his uniform was covered saved
him. The conduct of the Emperor and Empress was
much praised.

" As to the Empress," writes one who was present,
" her behaviour was admirable. ... At the moment when
the fire broke out she was also going round the circle
of ladies. She sat herself down on the throne and there
awaited the Emperor. It was sang-froid, perhaps even
courage. Mon Dieu ! if she ~»nly had had half as much
on March 28, 1814 !"

Next morning she wrote to her father, in German :

" I did not lose my head. The Prince of Schwarzen-
berg led us, the Emperor and me, out of the hotel by
the garden. I am all the more grateful to him as he
left his wife and child in the burning ballroom. The
panic and confusion was appalling. If the Grand-Duke
of Wurzburg had not carried out the Queen of Naples
she would have been burnt alive. My sister-in-law
Catherine, who thought her husband was in the midst
of the fire, fell in a faint. The Viceroy carried out the
Vicequeen. Not one of my officers or of my ladiei
were near me. General Lauriston, who adores his wife
was screaming most lamentably and preventing 01
getting out. Yet I was more calm at that momei
than when I saw the Emperor go back again. Carolim

The Wedding Tour 135

I sat up till four in the morning. Then we saw
return, all soaked with rain. The Duchesse de
Rovigo, my dame du palais, is much hurt. So are also
:he Countesses Buchholz, LOwenstein, the ladies of the
of Westphalia. . . . Lauriston, in saving his wife,
is my lady-in-waiting, burnt his hair and his fore-
lead. The Prince Kourakin, very much hurt, fainted.
tn the panic he was trampled under-foot and was carried
bff half dead. Prince Metternich was hardly hurt at all.
Princess Charles Schwarzenberg, who would not leave
j:ill she had seen that every one was gone, has bad burns.
Princess Paul Schwarzenberg has not been found. The
poor ambassador was beside himself, though he is not
Responsible for this catastrophe."

The letter was interrupted, and Maria Louise added
later :

" I have just been to the Emperor and heard awful

ews. Princess Paul Schwarzenberg has been found,

,11 charred. . . . The diamonds of her riviere were near

her, and she wore on her neck a heart in diamonds on

which were the names of her two daughters, Eleanore

land Pauline. It was by this jewel that she was recog-

bized. She has left eight children, and she was expecting

mother. Her family is inconsolable. Kourakin is very

Dad, and so is Madame Durosnel, wife of a general. I

am so upset I cannot move."

With this appalling catastrophe ended the wedding
:estivities of Marie Louise. Was it an evil omen for
icr future happiness ? People remembered the calamity
iwhich, forty years before, cast a gloom over those of
Marie Antoinette.

CHAPTER IX

THE BIRTH OF THE HEIR

IT seemed almost as if Napoleon could command
Nature. When he announced to the Senate the
incorporation of the States of the Church with the Empire,
which coincided almost with the signing of his marriage
contract, he decreed that his son and heir should bear
the title of the King of Rome, and hold his court there.
By the time his fete-day — August 15 — arrived, in 1810,
he was assured of hopes which would set the coping-
stone on his happiness.

The Queen of Saxony told Bignon, the historian, that
the Archduchesses always began with a daughter. "If
the Empress gives birth to a son it will be a miracle which
will react upon the fate of the Empire."

Marie Louise wrote to tell her father of her expecta-
tions. " God grant it may be so ! The Emperor would
be so happy about it ! I assure you, dear papa, that I
should have no alarm about this event, which would be
such a happiness. ... I seize this opportunity to ask for
your blessing for me and for your grandson or grand-
daughter. My joy will be complete if this birth brings
you to Paris. . . . My husband often talks to me about
you, and much wishes to see you again."

The Kaiser was delighted with the news. " Napoleon's
son will be my grandson ; he will find in me all the feelings
of a father."

136

The Birth of the Heir 137

To the Countess Colloredo Marie Louise wrote with
equal joy. But, considering the momentous issue at stake,
one hardly gathers that she was as careful of her health
at this time as might have been considered prudent. She
walked and drove a good deal and also learnt a new
accomplishment — riding ! The Austrian Archduchesses
were never allowed to ride before they married. Napoleon
himself gave her lessons in the riding-school at St. Cloud :
<c He walked beside her, holding her hand while the groom
held her bridle ; he calmed her fears and encouraged her.
She profited well by the lessons, grew bolder, and ended
by riding well. When she had become a horsewoman
who did credit to the master, the lessons were sometimes
carried on in the drive in the grounds which lead from
the salon de famille, so called because it was hung with
portraits of all the Imperial family. The Emperor, when
he had a moment of leisure after dejeuner, sent for the
horses, mounted clad in silk stockings and buckled shoes,
and pranced beside the Empress, excited his horse,
galloped, and laughed out at the fright into which he put
her ; all danger, however, was provided against by grooms
stationed at intervals to stop his horse and prevent a fall."
In September she was taking part in the grandes chasses
at St. Cloud three days a week.

All over France interest and expectation grew. On
the anniversary of the day on which he had defeated his
father-in-law at Austerlitz the Senate came to congratulate
Napoleon, and a solemn Te Deum, the usual illuminations,
and a play, marked at the Tuileries a day which, for
Marie Louise, had hitherto been associated with sad
memories. At Notre Dame three young girls were
married and dowered by the Empress. The Emperor
founded a munificently endowed Maternal Society under
her presidency. The Comtesse de Segur was Vice-
president, there was a committee of court ladies. It was

138 An Imperial Victim

to help the poor and deserving mothers of several children
in their confinements, by giving money, soup, wine,
clothes, and, if there were already many children, the
mother was paid to nurse her child as if she were a wet-
nurse. The Society was well managed and did much
good.

The New Year came in. There were no lack of
amusements, as Marie Louise wrote to the Countess
Colloredo on sending her New Year's wishes for her
children ; " but the moments which I pass most pleasantly
are those I spend alone with the Emperor." Bad weather
had put a stop to outdoor exercise and riding, and she
no longer danced. " You, who know how little courage
I have, will understand how I look forward to the event
with secret dread/*

Napoleon's first etrennes to his wife was characterized
by a tact and delicacy which would hardly have been
expected of him. Always inclined to be extravagant, and
to wish for pretty things, she fancied a set of Brazilian
diamonds, valued at ,£1,800 ; but as she wished to send
her sisters some presents to the value of about £1,000,
she found that she would only have about £600 left
out of her income for December. So, without saying
anything to Napoleon, she gave up the idea of the set
of diamonds, and it was only by accident that he dis-
covered that she had done so. Whereupon he ordered
a similar set, but worth five times as much, and when
he gave it to her, asked her what presents she intended
sending to her sisters. When she told him, Napoleon
thought them rather poor. She replied that the Arch-
duchesses were not spoilt, and that such presents would
seem to them magnificent. But he gave her £4,000
for them.

Paris was very gay that winter — so much dancing, and
the Empress's health excellent. The Court spent Christ-

The Birth of the Heir 139

mas and New Year at the Tuileries, and Marie Louise
was still able to appear at the hunts in the woods of
Vincennes and St. Germain, and at the battues at Ver-
sailles. She drove with Napoleon in the Bois de
Boulogne. On New Year's Day she appeared at the
reception in a beautiful dress of Lyons velvet that the
maire of that city and a deputation had that morning
presented. Napoleon's tenderness to her was touching.
She walked on the terrace of the Tuileries by the river,
which had been enclosed by an iron railing, and was
reached by stairs from the ground floor. In February
she went to a fancy ball at the Duchesse de Rovigo's,
and even gave a small dance in her own apartments ; to
which, however, only a few foreigners, such as Schwarzen-
berg and Prince Leopold of Coburg, were invited.

But the celebrated surgeon accoucheur Dubois had
taken up his residence at the Tuileries. The Duchesse
de Montebello, too, the nearest approach to an intimate
friend that the Empress possessed, had left her own
house in the Rue d'Enfer and had come to stay at the
palace. The layette^ too, was in readiness ; it had cost
£120,000 ; and two little cots, one pink, the other blue,
had been prepared.

On March 5, the Prefect of the Seine and the Corps
Municipal came to offer the Empress, in the name of the
city of Paris, the most magnificent cradle that could
be imagined. A superb piece of work, designed by
Prudhon, the artist, it is to be seen in the Treasury
at Vienna, to which it was given by the Duke of
Reichstadt. Silver-gilt, it is ornamented with mother-
o'-pearl. Four cornucopias, with figures of Justice and
Strength, support the four corners. The rim is of
mother-o'-pearl, powdered with gold bees. At the top
is a shield surmounted by the Imperial monogram,
surrounded by a laurel wreath. A figure representing

1 4° An Imperial Victim

Glory standing on a globe holds up a crown, in the
middle of which glitters the star of Napoleon. A rich
curtain of lace, powdered with stars and edged with gold
embroidery, fell to the edge of the cradle. This curtain
is now in the possession of the grandchildren of Madame
Soufflot, the King of Rome's deputy governess.

Sixteen years after that March morning, when it was
presented with so much ceremony, the Comte d'Herrison,
visiting Parma, saw this treasure in the garde-meuUe of
the palace. {< I fear/' he writes sarcastically, " Messieurs
Perrier and Fontaine, the designers of the sumptuous
gew-gaw, worked a malicious idea into the ornaments
which embellished the cradle. Two genii decorated the
foot — Force and Justice. The first turns its back on
the royal brat, the hope of France ; the second, with ill-
balanced scales, well represents the justice of sovereigns
on one side and the other." He also saw the toilette
service presented to the Empress by the city of Paris
at the same occasion — a cheval glass, arm-chair, toilet
table, lavabO) and perfumery cabinet, valued at 500,000
francs.

The tension increased all over Paris and France.
Daily the Empress strolled on the terrace on the edge
of the pond in the Tuileries gardens. Crowds gathered
at the gate to see her pass through, and to pray for her
happiness.

At nine o'clock on the evening of March 1 8 the big
bell of Notre Dame, echoed by that of all the churches
in Paris, began to call upon the faithful to spend the
night in prayer for the happy deliverance of Her Majesty.

The Duchesse de Montebello was with the Empress,
tending her like a mother — she spent nine nights on a
sofa at the foot of her bed. The Comtesse de Lu^ay,
Mesdames Ballant and Durand, were also in the room,
with Dubois, the surgeon, and the nurses. In the

The Birth of the Heir 143

adjoining drawing-room, in profound silence, sat Napoleon
with his mother and sisters ; from time to time he came
into his wife's room to cheer and soothe her. But he
was unable to remain long, for he, inured to a hundred
battle-fields, was unmanned by the sight of his wife's
sufferings. At five in the morning Dubois informed
the Emperor that the birth would not take place for
some time yet, whereupon those in waiting were dis-
missed, and the Emperor, who had worried himself into a
fever, went to take a bath.

"The Empress," writes Madame Durand, who re-
mained in the Empress's room, " worn out with fatigue,
slept for an hour. Suddenly violent pains awoke her with
a start. These continued to increase, but without bring-
ing about the crisis demanded by nature, and M. Dubois
became convinced of the sad fact that the accouchement
would be long and difficult. He went to find the
Emperor, begging him to persuade the Empress to suffer
bravely, and did not conceal from him that he hardly
hoped to save both mother and child. ' Think only of
the mother,' said Napoleon, c and give her all your care.
Do not lose your heads !'

<c Napoleon hardly allowed himself to be dried, and,
slipping on a dressing-gown, ran to the Empress's rooms,
after giving orders to warn all those who ought to be
present. He kissed the Empress tenderly, and exhorted
her to be patient and brave."

. <c ' Because 1 am Empress,' she cried, ' must I be
sacrificed ? '

" c Courage, Madame,' said Madame de Montebello,
who was holding her head. c Your precious life is not
in danger. I have also been through this ! and I can
assure you, you are running no danger ; don't be afraid ! '

"M. Bordier, the doctor, and M. Yvan, the surgeon,
now came and held Marie Louise. The child arrived feet

144 An Imperial Victim

foremost, and M. Dubois was obliged to use the forceps
in order to free its head. The labour lasted twenty-six
minutes, and was very hard. The Emperor could not be
present more than five minutes; he let go the Empress's
hands, which he was holding between his own, and re-
tired to the dressing-room, pale as death, and almost beside
himself. Every moment he sent one of the women who
were there to bring him news. At last the child was born,
and when the Emperor was informed he flew to his wife
and clasped her once more in his arms. Cambaceres, the
Arch-Chancellor, was brought in to verify the birth and sex
of the child. The Prince of Neufchatel, though he had
no reason for coming in, followed him, urged by his zeal
and devotion. The child remained seven minutes without
giving any sign of life. Napoleon glanced at him a
moment, thought him dead, did not say a word on the
subject, and only concerned himself about the Empress.
A few drops of brandy were blown into the child's mouth,
he was gently slapped all over the body with the palm of
the hand, and wrapped in warm clothes. At last he gave
a cry, and the Emperor came to embrace his son.

" When the Empress was back in bed, and all was
quiet about her, he then returned to dress, for he was
only in his dressing-gown ; but smiling, and humming to
himself, a sign of great contentment. The servants did
not dare to approach him, but he called them : c Eh !
bien, Messieurs, j'espere que nous avons un assez gros et
un assez beau gar£on. II s'est fait un peu prier pour
arriver, par exemple, mais enfin le voila ! '

Meanwhile all Paris had been hanging in breathless
expectation awaiting the salute which was to announce the
birth, twenty-one guns for a princess, and a hundred and
one for an heir to the throne.

Since dawn the Tuileries gardens had been crowded
with people. A rope had been stretched from the gate

The Birth of the Heir 145

of the Pont Royal to the Pavilion de 1'Horloge, along the
terrace, in front of the palace. But this slight barrier was
quite sufficient to keep in check the growing crowd, only
anxious not to disturb the Empress and which spoke only
in whispers. Then, suddenly, at nine o'clock, the cannon
of the Invalides began to speak.

There came upon Paris a hush such as a great city has
never known. When the booming began, work, play,
even speech paused ; in the street, at the doors and
windows, every one was counting the reports — one, two,

three the tension grew painful. Twenty-one ! would

there be another ? It came.

" At the twenty-second report wild enthusiasm broke
out everywhere, the shouts of joy, the hats in the air, the
cheers, which went up from the Tuileries gardens, carried
the news into the other parts of Paris, quite as fast as the
guns. Napoleon, standing behind a curtain of one of the
windows of the Empress's rooms, enjoyed the sight of
the genuine intoxication and seemed exceedingly touched ;
large tears ran down his cheeks without his being aware of
it, and in this state he came again to kiss his son."

"Never," writes Constant, his valet, "had glory
drawn from him a single tear, but the happiness of being
a father softened a soul which the most brilliant victories
and the most sincere public ovations hardly seemed to
ruffle. And, in truth, if Napoleon might claim the right
to believe in his lucky star, it was on that day when the
Archduchess of Austria made him who had begun by
being the cadet of a Corsican family the father of a

son."

A year afterwards he said to the Duchesse d'Abrantes,
who was in Spain at the time of a great event, "You were
not at his birth ? It was a fine sight. I saw then how
the Parisians loved me ; but it's a hard business for you
women."

146 An Imperial Victim

And he pressed his hand to his forehead as if to drive
away a painful recollection.

" ' I quite understand/ he went on, ( how it was that
Junot fled to me when you went to bed. But the
Parisians paid the Empress well for what she suffered ;
yes, they were well pleased. And the army, how did they
receive the news ? '

" I told him that for a fortnight they were as if mad
with joy. He walked about with his hands behind his
back, his head bent low, but smiling. One saw that he
was recalling a happy moment."

In a few hours the event upon which all France and
Europe hung had become a subject of private family
rejoicing in every home. It was a beautiful spring day.
Madame Blanchard, the balloonist, went up an hour after
the event from the Champs de Mars, scattering papers
announcing the great news. The semaphore telegraph of
the period, unhampered by fog, spread the news all over
the country. By the afternoon it was known in all the
principal cities of the Empire. Couriers and pages flew
on horses to carry letters and despatches to crowned heads
and diplomats. Even poor Josephine, in Normandy, was
not forgotten by Napoleon.

" MA CHERE JOSEPHINE,

" I have a son. I am at the summit of
my happiness."

" Ah ! yes, he must be happy ;" and she wiped away a
tear. " And I am happy, too, in the Emperor's happi-
ness ; happy in seeing the hopes of the French fulfilled. I
grasp the fruits of my sorrow, my sacrifice, for it assures
the prosperity of France ! " And she gave a ball to
celebrate the event. It was the day after her name-day —
St. Joseph's.

The Birth of the Heir H7

Count Tettenborn carried the news to Vienna, riding
960 miles in four and a half days. He rode Prince
Schwarzenberg's racehorses as far as Strasburg, beyond,
those of Prince Joseph Schwarzenberg.

The day after the birth the Emperor on his throne
received congratulations of the various departments of
the State, who passed on to view the King of Rome
asleep in his silver-gilt cradle, on which the Legion of
Honour and the Iron Cross had been placed by the Chan-
cellor, and the Order of St. Stephen by Schwarzenberg.

Twelve hours after his birth the King of Rome was
solemnly anointed in the chapel of the Tuileries. The
Comtesse de Montesquieu had been appointed his
gouvernante. She was a dignified woman of forty-six,
with kind, simple manners and solid principles. Madame
Soufflot, widow of a member of the Corps Legislatif,
deputy gouvernante^ and her daughter Fanny, were
under her. This devoted trio accompanied him into
exile.

It was a solemn moment when Napoleon advanced to
present his son to the Archbishop ; in the chapel dead
silence prevailed. Outside in Paris, all illuminated, the
crowd shouted and cheered. On the banks of the Seine,
thronged by thousands, the boatmen gave an impromptu
fete. There was merry-making from Cadiz to Tarento,
from Bruges to the Niemen, and especially in Warsaw and
Rome. All was spontaneous, nothing was done to order.
At Vienna the French ambassador gave a ball ; the Kaiser
and Kaiserinn, who never before had been seen at a
private entertainment, were present.

The King of Rome was born at a time of universal
peace. From the far north of Germany the unhappy
relations of SchuTs partisans, participators in his rebellion,
sent pathetic congratulations : " The German mothers
whose sons are still in the chains of France, to Napoleon

148 An Imperial Victim

the great Emperor of France, on the occasion of the birth
of his Majesty, the King of Rome."

The great event inspired poets, great and small, in
every language of Europe — except English. In a week
the Emperor and Empress had been inundated with no
less than two thousand effusions, and had scattered, says
Madame Durand, no less than £4,000 in largesse to their
perpetrators.

The amount expended in presents to relations and
officials, in money, jewels, and Sevres china, amounted to
£20,000.

The Duchesse d'Abrantes, returning from Spain,
found France in a " delirium of joy. Alas ! it was the
last smile of Fortune for Napoleon. But how happy
he was with this last favour ! How he enjoyed it !
One must have seen him with his son, have seen him
devouring that pink and golden head with caresses, seen
him wishing him with his eyes all the happiness which
such a man could promise to his race, to form a real
idea of what the unfortunate creature must have suffered
on his rock at the end, when he no longer had anything
except the picture of an angel he was never to see
again. ... I found him changed — him, in person. But
a quite new expression with which it seemed to me that
his face was lit up, was that of father ... an excellent
piece by a poet, gives a correct idea of Napoleon looking
at, and caressing his son ! "

" Car les cceurs de lions sont les vrais cceurs de
peres." (Victor Hugo on the death of the King of
Rome in "Napoleon dans les Cent et Un jours.")

Marie Louise made a quick and excellent recovery,
and the boy throve exceedingly. Napoleon, in his joy
and excitement, fussed a good deal.

One day Madame Mere and his three sisters came
to pay a formal visit of congratulation to the young

The Birth of the Heir 149

mother. The Emperor found three arm-chairs placed
by Marie Louise's bedside awaiting them. He ordered
them to be replaced by three stools (tabourets)^ saying
that it was etiquette only for the daughters of sovereigns
to sit on arm-chairs. But when the ladies came they were
so annoyed that they would not stay.

Another day Marie Louise upset herself by taking
medicine without the doctor. Napoleon was annoyed
with the dame d'honneur for having allowed her to do
so, saying that it was etiquette for the doctor himself
to administer the dose. When he had left the room
the Duchesse remarked : " I am glad M. 1'Etiquette has
gone, for I never liked long sermons."

Within a month the Empress was driving in the
Bois de Boulogne, had received personally the con-
gratulations of the corps diplomatique, and was churched
by the Cardinal Prince de Rohan in the chapel of the
Tuileries. On April 24 she and the Emperor went to
stay at St. Cloud, and thence Marie Louise wrote in
German a happy letter to her father :

"My DEAR FATHER,

" You can imagine my enormous happiness. I
never could have believed that I could feel such a joy.
My love for my husband has grown, if it were possible,
since the birth of this son. I am still touched to tears
when I think of the tenderness he has shown me. This
alone would make me devoted to him if I were not so
already on account of all his good qualities. He tells
me to write to you about him. He often asks news of
you. He said to me : c How pleased your father must
be to have a grandson.' When I told him that you
loved the child already he was delighted. I venture to
send you the portrait of my son. You will find, no
doubt, a likeness to the Emperor. He is very strong,

150 An Imperial Victim

for five weeks old. When he was born he weighed
nine pounds. He is very well, and spends all day in
the garden. The Emperor takes a great deal of notice
of his son. He carries him about in his arms, wishes
to feed him, but does not succeed. You will have learnt,
from my uncle's letter, that I suffered for twenty-two
hours. You cannot imagine what sufferings ! But the
joy of being a mother quickly made me forget them.
The baptism is fixed for June. I am sorry your affairs
do not permit of your being present. Please God you
may come soon ! I was delighted to hear by Prince Clary
that you are well. I hope God will grant my prayers,
and that dear mamma will soon be well again. You
cannot imagine how many questions I asked about you.
For to talk of you and of your kindness is my great
pleasure."

To the Countess Colloredo she wrote, on the birth
of Madame de Crenneville's boy, which took place about
the same time as that of the King of Rome, congratula-
tions " all the more hearty as I am myself tasting all
the fulness of that joy of which one must have tasted
to form an idea. I have been much touched by the
wishes you send on this occasion for my son, and I hope
that they may be realized, and that he will be like his
father, the joy of all who come near him and know
him."

Slowly, she writes, she was recovering from her
dangerous confinement, so she cannot complain.

" My son is wonderful for his age ; he looks as if
he were three months old. He laughs out loud, and is
like the Emperor. Since April 20 I have been at
St. Cloud, taking long rides ; you see I have not fol-
lowed the law of our grandmothers, who insisted that
it was necessary to remain six weeks in the house ; but

The Birth of the Heir 151

I went out walking and driving before four were over.
It may be imprudent, but I am the better for it."

To Victoire herself she wrote a proud mother's
letter, full of little details and comparisons of the babies,
which her friend had asked for. " My son is also
strong and beautiful." Riding had been ordered, and
she had ridden from St. Cloud as far as the Trianon
and Rambouillet. " The son grows ; you can see him
grow. He is charming, and my maternal love flatters
itself that he has said ' Papa.' "

The beginning of the fine summer weather took
Napoleon and Marie Louise to Rambouillet for a few
days' shooting. Here the life of the Imperial pair was
always more private and unostentatious than in Paris,
or at St. Cloud and Compiegne ; they were, so to speak,
en famille. Marie Louise was able to indulge her taste
for reading. In June she read eighteen volumes of
Madame de Genlis.

But Marie Louise, who had been so delighted with
her previous trip to the Low Countries, wished for
further travelling, and persuaded the Emperor to take
her on a little tour to Normandy and the sea. They stayed
at Caen, flinging ,£5,000 in charity and presents. At
Cherbourg Napoleon opened the great new dockyard he
had constructed, and made various military and naval
inspections.

u The Emperor," writes his prefet du palais, " wished
to breakfast on the pier which had been begun in the
unhappy reign of the most virtuous of sovereigns. I
arrived before their Majesties ; it was beautiful weather,
and I had everything arranged. The table was placed
facing the sea, and it was easy to perceive the English
vessels on the horizon, and, indeed, they were far from
suspecting the presence of Napoleon. There was, how-
ever, a formidable battery on this pier, protecting these

152 An Imperial Victim

fine roads and the port. I do not think our neighbours
would have been tempted to come nearer to salute us,
even had they been better informed. . . . On a signal
from the Emperor the squadron which was lying in
the roads, consisting of three men-of-war, commanded
by Vice-Admiral Tronde, advanced majestically with sails
full spread, and sailed slowly round the pier on which
we were. The admiral's ship approached as near the
pier as possible, and the Vice-Admiral came with his
barge to fetch Their Majesties and their suites ; he con-
ducted us on board amid the cheers of the crew drawn
up in full dress.

" While the Empress and the ladies who accom-
panied her remained to rest in the council-room (sic)
Napoleon went down to inspect the inside of the vessel ;
at the moment when we were least expecting it he
ordered a general and simultaneous discharge of all the
guns. In my life I never heard such a row ; 1 thought
the vessel would have blown up ! "

The little tour did Marie Louise a great deal of
good, and she came back to St. Cloud on June 4,
looking very pretty, though she had lost her plumpness
after her confinement and never regained it, and was
paler than she had been before ; " but still," says the
Duchesse d'Abrantes, " quite red enough."

On Sunday, June n, the King of Rome was baptized
with immense pomp at Notre Dame. The public festi-
vities began in the morning by the marriages of poor
girls, dowered by the city, to soldiers. All day there
were free refreshments, and fountains running wine, in
which enormous crowds drank to the health of the little
King. In the evening followed free performances at the
theatre, and the inevitable illuminations.

At seven in the evening the Imperial procession
passed through the gaily decorated streets between a

The Birth of the Heir iS3

double rank of the Imperial Guard, to the shouts of
" Vive le Roi de Rome ! " At the cathedral the Senate,
the great departments of the State, all the dignitaries
of Paris, and deputations from every great town in
the Empire had awaited it for three mortal hours. Notre
Dame, splendidly decorated and filled with a galaxy
of rank and fashion, was lighted like day. In the
sanctuary were gathered twenty cardinals, and no less
than one hundred bishops and clergy. The ceremonial
arranged by Napoleon was most elaborate. Carried by
the Duchesse de Montesquiou, his train borne by the
Marshal Due de Valmy, the baby was half-smothered in
a mantle of silver lined with ermine. Beneath a canopy
upheld by four canons of the cathedral walked the
Emperor and Empress. The Grand-duke of Wttrzburg
stood godfather for his brother the Kaiser ; Madame
Mere was one godmother, Queen Hortense stood for
the other, the Queen of Naples. The child received
the names of Napoleon Fran£ois Charles Joseph.

After the ceremony, at the gate of the choir, the
gouvernante placed the baby in his mother's arms. The
herald advanced into the middle of the choir and cried
three times : " Vive le Roi de Rome ! " which brought
forth a thunder of applause even in the sacred edifice !
Marie Louise stood holding her baby. Then Napoleon
took him from her, and held him up to show him to the
immense congregation.

The baptism cost Napoleon £14,000, of which
£1,600 went to the ecclesiastics.

The day ended with a great banquet at the Hotel de
Ville, followed, when the Emperor and Empress retired,
by a ball which lasted till dawn. The great courtyard
had been floored in to the heights of the windows which
opened into the rooms. Fountains ran wine. There
were collected a brilliant company of citizens, whom the

154 An Imperial Victim

Emperor liked to meet. He was so excited when he
headed the court procession, and walked so fast, that
the Empress had almost to run to keep up with him.

" The latter," writes the Due de Rovigo, " though
young, went through this great show without losing her
popularity ; she, indeed, needed much patience, for, as
she made the tour of this immense gathering, she had to
repeat a thousand times, in a different manner, the little
court phrases which serve for every one ! She managed
to add a few last words, which charmed those who might
have been inclined to allow themselves to be repelled by
a cold manner, which came from the shyness of her age
and her great bashfulness."

Every great town in the empire kept the baptism
with fetes. None were grander than those at Rome
itself, where a Te Deum was sung at St. Peter's, and
the dome and colonnades illuminated.

But the description of Napoleonic fetes really grows
monotonous and wearisome. The Emperor in the
present day would have excelled as a stage-manager or
pageant-master. One he gave in honour of his son at
St. Cloud must have been really most beautiful, and it
was calculated that, during a whole day and half a night,
some three hundred thousand people enjoyed it. In
the daytime the usual free feasting, fountains running
wine, free games and entertainments ; in the grounds
the Imperial Guard dined the whole garrison of Paris.
At six o'clock the Imperial pair drove about through the
grounds in the summer evening in a small carriage
unescorted.

When night fell the palace, the terraces, the amphi-
theatre, the fountains, the cascades, and the park burst
into light. Six illuminated frigates executed naval
manoeuvres on the river. Madame Blanchard soared
again in her balloon, firing a galaxy of pyrotechnics from

The Birth of the Heir 155

her glittering car. From all along the Seine, and all
over Paris the bouquets of fireworks were visible. On
a stage of grass was performed a musical intermezzo,
and, as the Empress passed along by a column crowned
with a bouquet, a dove, bearing in its beak a compli-
mentary device, fluttered to her feet.

But what pleased Marie Louise most were dioramas
in fire of the castle at Vienna, of Schonbrttnn, and of
Laxenburg, and the opera ballet troupe, dressed as Austrian
peasants, dancing in bosky stages to several orchestras.

The moonless night was admirably suited for such a
show, but it was ominously still and heavy. Scarcely
had a transparency of the future palace to be built above
the Bois de Boulogne for the King of Rome been lit up,
than a sudden violent storm of rain burst upon the gaily
dressed crowd. The Emperor was chatting with the
maire of Lyons at the door of a saloon opening into the
gardens. " Monsieur le maire," quoth he, " I am doing
good to your manufacturers."

And, in truth, every one was instantly wet to the
skin. No one had brought any umbrellas, and the
damage to the dresses must have been enormous.
Happily, her equerry, Prince Aldobrandini, found one
with which to protect Marie Louise as he led her
into shelter.

The illuminations fizzled out, the strings of the
orchestras snapped, and the fete broke up in confusion.
Superstitious people recollected the Schwarzenberg ball,
and noted that the storm burst just as the King of
Rome's palace was flashing into flame.

On August 15 the fete-day of the Napoleons,
father and son, was brilliantly celebrated at St. Cloud
and in Paris. On the 2fth Marie Louise kept hers at
the Trianons. For two and twenty years deserted and
silent, the favourite play-place of her ill-fated aunt burst

156 An Imperial Victim

into life and gaiety again. All day long, despite a heavy
shower, the pretty grounds were crowded, at nightfall
they were lit up, and the Empress received some six
hundred beautifully dressed and be-jewelled women in
the gallery of the Grand Trianon, talking to them with an
ease and appositeness which was much commented on.

The Imperial pair then passed to the beautiful little
theatre of the Petit Trianon, and saw Le Jardinier de
Schonbrunn played by the opera ballet. Afterwards,
arm-in-arm, the Emperor hat in hand, they walked about
the illuminated gardens, finding fresh surprises at each
turn — hidden music wafted from the depths of the lake,
on the surface of which floated shimmering boats ;
tableaux vivants in fire ; peasants of every part of the
Empire, from the Tiber to the North, dancing ballets in
glittering shrubberies. At the end came a great banquet
in the gallery of the Grand Trianon. Never, said courtiers
of the old regime, had the Trianons in Marie Antoinette's
time been so gay ; never, said Marie Louise, had she kept
her name-day so brilliantly.

CHAPTER X

HOME LIFE

IT was not in Napoleon's nature to live merely for
pleasure. Empire-making, in every form, was his
real amusement. Now, he felt, the lover must give place
to the sovereign. After Wagram he had told his
generals : " Enough of the trade of a soldier ; the time has
come to take up that of a King ! "

Therefore, while the present peaceful lull yet lasted —
for the political horizon was clouding over, a little cloud no
bigger than a man's hand rising in the direction of Russia
— he determined on an administrative tour in Holland,
which, irked as it was by the continental blockade, it
behoved him both to pacify and impress.

In September he set out, alone. The Empress was
to join him at Antwerp a week later. But she felt this
short separation, for to her father she wrote :

" My husband left this evening to visit the island of
Walcheren, the worst climate there is, and I have not
been able to go with him, which makes me very sad."

While Napoleon was busy over ports of commerce,
coast defences, arsenals, and dockyards, with an eye to
his great enemy across the straits, Marie Louise was
to queen it at the ancient Belgian capital, now the chef-
lieu of a French department. At Brussels she went
several times to the theatre, was received with great
enthusiasm, and spent no less than £600 in lace to give

158 An Imperial Victim

an impetus to the trade of the city. At the end of
September she joined Napoleon at Antwerp and on
October 8 they entered Amsterdam in state.

The Dutch were feeling acutely the continental
blockade of English goods, and regretted the easier days
of King Louis. Napoleon was determined to make
himself popular, and Marie Louise was to help him.
She entered the capital alone in a gilt glass coach, with a
body-guard of young Dutch nobles. The Emperor
followed on horseback surrounded by a brilliant staff.
During the fortnight's stay at Amsterdam all that pomp
and circumstance could devise was done to dazzle the
phlegmatic Dutch. The actors of the Theatre fran^ais
were brought from Paris. The Emperor made excursions
over Holland, sparing no pains over grievances and
reforms. Marie Louise visited the model Dutch village
of Broack, clean and tidy to such a pitch that no one
was allowed to drive down its streets, paved with mosaic
and sanded over in floral patterns ; no one was allowed
to enter a house except in stockinged feet. Even Marie
Louise's uncle, Joseph II., had been compelled take off
his boots. <c But I am the Emperor," he had protested.
" If you were the Burgomaster of Amsterdam," replied
the master of the house, " you should not enter in your
boots ! " But for his great-niece all restrictions wen
removed. She drove down the sacred streets, and for
her were unbarred the equally sacred front doors, openec
only on the occasions of baptisms, marriages, and deaths.
This speaks for itself of the attitude of the Dutch towards
their young Empress. Napoleon had thawed the Dutch.

Yet the stay at Amsterdam was marked, for Marie
Louise, by two little incidents which ruffled her peace and
happiness. When they arrived at the palace Napoleon
spied a bust of the Czar on the Empress's piano. He
took it hastily down, tucked it under his arm while he

By Isabey.

MARIE LOUISE, EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH.

159

Home Life 161

walked through the apartments, and, finally, ordered one of
the ladies to remove it out of his sight. For those who
were not blind, a straw showed how the wind was going
to blow.

The other incident was more personal. For a moment
only Napoleon seemed to admire Princess Aldobrandini,
the witty, vivacious young wife of the Empress's equerry.
He suggested to his wife and to the Duchesse de Monte-
bello that they had better " imitate her and become quite
perfect." Marie Louise, for the first time hurt with her
husband, kept silence ; Montebello vented her annoyance
on the Princess. It was, however, but a passing fancy
on Napoleon's part. He was never openly unfaithful
to Marie Louise. Outwardly, at least, at Court, decorum
reigned, and by his special wish.

After a peep at Saardam, where Peter the Great
had worked as a shipwright, and another at Haarlem,
the town of tulips, the Emperor and Empress slept at
Rotterdam, Le Loo, and the Hague, and then went up
the Rhine to Diisseldorf, capital of the Grand Duchy
of Berg, which Napoleon had given to his eldest nephew,
Louis Bonaparte's young son. Here all was loyalty and
obsequiousness. To the reception of officials came a
hundred-year-old Rabbi, supported on one side by the
Roman Catholic priest and on the other by the Lutheran
minister. After dinner Count Beugnot, the Governor,
played whist with the Empress for his partner, against
the Duchesse de Montebello and the Prince of Neufchatel.
u The game was played very carelessly, as often happens
under the circumstances; each of the players only using
his eyes for his cards and giving his mind to what was
passing round the table, to which the Emperor came up
from time to time to say a pleasant word to the Empress,
or some joke to the Prince of Neufchatel and to me.
My mind was occupied, both during dinner and during the

1-10

/

1 62 An Imperial Victim

game, in finding out what mood the Empress was in,
and in gleaning from her expression some hints as to her
character. The journey had been a long one, she seemed
tired and bored. She only answered the Emperor in mono-
syllables, and the others by a monotonous nod of her head.
I do not know really what it was ; but I am inclined to
think that Her Majesty is not exempt from the awe with
which her august spouse inspires all those who have the
honour of approaching him."

After a two days' stay, the Imperial pair passed on
to Cologne, where a Te Deum was sung in the cathedral.
Then home to St. Cloud, by Li£ge, Mezieres, and
Compiegne. Thus ended the longest progress that the
Emperor had yet made in any part of his dominions.
Marie Louise wrote that the journey, and the beauty of
the Meuse had quite set her up and that she found her son
strong, possessing four teeth, and saying " Papa," " but
pale and thin from teething."

The boy was growing not only into a fine child, and
a very precocious one, but also, to judge by Isabey's
portraits, was exceedingly lovely, with his long fair curls
and large blue eyes. Under the devoted care of the
Comtesse de Montesquieu he was thriving. Napoleon's
choice of a gouvernante had been an excellent one.
Madame de Montesquieu was now forty -six, of good and
old family, religious, dignified, simple in her manner, and
devoid of haughtiness. Her touching devotion to her
charge never faltered or failed, in prosperity or in adver-
sity, and already he was growing almost as fond of her
he came to call his " Maman 'Quiou," as of his own
mother.

In truth the Empress and the Comtesse were a little
jealous of each other over the boy, but neither dared
show it, for Napoleon insisted on all being peace and
harmony at Court, at least outwardly. Nevertheless, it was

Home Life 163

divided into two distinct parties. The first was headed
by the Comtesse de Montesquiou, who, with her husband,
Napoleon's grand chamberlain, represented the old noblesse.
This party intrigued for honours and favours for the
emigres in order to attach them to Napoleon, whom they
imagined irrevocably fixed in France. Because of his
gratitude for the Comtesse's devotion to his son, the
Emperor rarely refused what they asked. The other
party, headed by the Duchesse de Montebello, was small
but very active. It was protected by the Emperor and
consisted of Napoleon's new nobility. Further, there
was a third party, the military, represented by Marshal
Duroc, who was comptroller of the palaces, the furniture,
etc. Secretly favoured by the Emperor, he used it to
counteract the others. The two first parties fought almost
openly ; the third looked on, criticized, and unmasked
them both.

The Comtesse, quiet and prudent, was reserved and
cold to the Duchesse, and never confessed that she did
not like her. The latter rarely went to see the King of
Rome, and tried to prejudice her mistress against his
gouvernante by saying that the Comtesse's devotion was
in self-interest. In consequence, Marie Louise hardly
did justice to the Comtesse, who, indeed, was con-
stantly endeavouring to open her eyes to her favourite's
intrigues.

The dames du palais, ladies-in-waiting, and the
Empress's chamberlains did not live in the palace, but
only appeared at stated hours to attend her in walking
and driving, or on public occasions. But when the
Emperor was away, the Duchesse slept in rooms she had
in the palace, near her mistress. These communicated
by a back passage with those of the Empress, who used
to run along it in the mornings in order to go and chat
with her favourite, without passing through the salon

164 An Imperial Victim

where the other ladies sat, which, of course, did not tend
to make her more popular with them.

On her return from Holland Marie Louise had settled
down into a regular routine of life. Napoleon did all in
his power to make it a pleasant one. Except at State
functions, he liked but little etiquette, and Marie Louise
had been brought up to a very retired family private life
in the intervals of the great ceremonial of the stiffest
Court in Europe. Winter was spent in the Tuileries,
where Marie Louise had the rooms formerly occupied by
Marie Antoinette and by Josephine, on the ground floor
between the Pavilion deFlore and the Pavilion del'Horloge,
looking into the gardens. The state apartments consisted
of an ante-room, drawing-room, second drawing-room,
and concert-room. The private apartments were a bed-
room, study, dressing-room, and boudoir and bath-room.
The salon after the ante-room was hung with violet
blue patterned in maroon. Domenichino's " St. Cecilia "
found a place there. The second salon was hung with
yellow silk fringed with brown and red, and was much
admired. Mahogany furniture was upholstered to match
in Indian silk. English chandeliers and lustres lighted
it, and the room was furnished with mirrors draped
with silk, console-tables, Sevres china, and marble
vases.

The bedroom had a double bed, in mahogany with
gilt ornaments, and which stood in an alcove. It was
curtained with blue, gold, and white. The walls were
hung with old masters. From the bathroom a secret
stair led up to the Emperor's study. Beyond the bath-
room was a small library with dwarf book-cases, all the
books bound in green. Raphael's " Madonna della
Sedia" hung there.

Marie Louise loved flowers, and to have her rooms
full of them. Madame Bernard, the florist, dressed her

Home Life 165

rooms at St. Cloud for £120 a year. The Empress also
had aviaries full of birds.

Napoleon lived on the floor above, in the same bed-
room as Louis XV. and Louis XVI. A little back
staircase communicated with the Empress's rooms, and he
came and went as he pleased.

The expenses of Marie Louise's household in 1812
were 346,000 francs. On secretaries, etc., she spent
3,300 ; on wardrobe, jewellery, 800,000 ; on servants,
476,000 ; on jewellery as presents, 660,300 ; on lace,
187,134; on a costume for a fancy quadrille in
February, £960.

The summers were spent at St. Cloud, the palace
Marie Louise liked best, because of its country air and
its beautiful grounds. She slept there on the first floor,
in the rooms Marie Antoinette and Josephine had used ;
her bedroom was subsequently the third Napoleon's
council-chamber. Rambouillet and Compiegne were
chiefly used as hunting-boxes. Versailles Napoleon
never lived in.

Marie Louise's day began at eight a.m., when her
maids opened her curtains and shutters and brought her
her fetit dejeuner and the papers. The Comtesse de
Montesquiou also brought the boy, and his mother kept
him with her till nine o'clock, when she made her toilette
and received petit es entrees people. Then she would
often pay a visit to the nursery hung with soft green silk,
and padded to the height of a child of seven or eight lest
the little King should hurt himself. Taking her wool-
work, she would sit by him while he played. Often,
followed by the nurse, she would carry him off to the
Emperor's study. The nurse waited outside the door
and the Empress went in alone, carrying the child, whom
she was always afraid of dropping. No matter how busy
he might be the Emperor was always delighted to see the

1 66 An Imperial Victim

boy, and would rush up to him and cover him with kisses.
He would manage to sign despatches and consider business
papers while he sat with the child on his knee. Some-
times he even played with him on the floor. Napoleon
had a set of little wooden bricks with which he worked
out manoeuvres, and if these were arranged for some
intricate military problem, and the boy upset them, the
fond father only smiled. An old marshal, once seeing
this little picture of domestic happiness through the half-
opened door, was moved to tears.

At noon Marie Louise had dejeuner, always alone now,
as Napoleon after his son's birth reverted to his old irre-
gular habits of feeding during the day. At two o'clock
she drove out with the Duchesse, the chevalier d'honneur
and two or three ladies. Sometimes she rode instead,
alone, or with the Emperor. When she returned she had
a music or a drawing-lesson. Both Pae'r, her music-
master (badly paid at £49 a year), and Prudhon, who
taught her pastels and water-colours, and Isabey, thought
well of her talents. In the intervals she would go and sit
in the nursery with her embroidery.

" Directly she returned to her private apartments or
to the privacy of her garden," writes Lamartine, <c she
became German again. She had cultivated poetry, her
pencil, and her voice. Education had perfected in her
these talents, as if to alleviate the sadness to which the
young girl would be a prey when away from her native
land. She excelled in these, but for herself alone. She
read and recited the poetry of her mother-tongue and of
her clime."

Homesick she doubtless was, at times. Meneval
relates that one day he noticed that she gazed pensively
at the view from St. Cloud, and told him that she wished
she had a magic wand to transform it into that of the
environs of Vienna as seen from Schonbrttnn.

Home Life 167

Napoleon always dined tete-a-tete with his wife, at
seven or eight o'clock. Occasionally the Duchesse or
the Comtesse de Lu9ay were invited. If Napoleon was
absent the Duchesse always dined with her mistress. On
Sunday there was always a family dinner-party, after
the bon bourgeois fashion, of Madame Mere and the
Imperial brothers and sisters, which function was always
something of an infliction to the hostess. After dinner
there was, every evening, a concert, or a small reception.
The Empress went to bed at eleven.

Of these small receptions that old republican, Cardinal
Maury, writes enthusiastically to the Duchesse d'Abrantes :
" And then, if you knew how cheerful the Empress is,
gracious — even familiar with all the persons who are
admitted to her intimacy ! You will see how kind she
is. People talk so much of the soirees of the Queen of
Holland, I can assure you that the Empress is charming
to those whom the Emperor has honoured by granting
them the petit es entries at the Tuileries. One goes there
to pay one's respects, one plays with Their Majesties at
reversis and billiards, and then the Empress has so many
little charms, so many little kindnesses, that one sees that
the Emperor is dying to kiss her. That is what I want
you to see : how happy the Emperor is."

The Comte de Melito also describes the Tuileries
receptions : " The Empress came in. . . Her face had a
noble expression, but a little scornful. Attended by
Madame de Montebello she went round the company
and spoke with graciousness and condescension to
many people she had presented to her, and each one
could congratulate himself on the kind welcome he
received."

When alone with her ladies, at the small receptions,
before the Emperor came in, Marie Louise, writes the
Duchesse d'Abrantes, was wont to entertain them by

1 68 An Imperial Victim

showing how she could turn her right ear quite round
by moving the muscles of her jaw — a unique performance,
which evidently bored the Duchesse, who writes, as usual,
spitefully, of these evenings. She is even more scornful
over Marie Louise's behaviour to her son. " Her affec-
tion for him was apathetic," she writes. <c One saw her
just nod to him when she came in from riding, and her
feather made the child cry ; at four o'clock she went to
his rooms, took her wool-work, looked occasionally at the
little King, and nodded at him : c Bon jour ! Bon jour ! *
and then went off to a lesson from Isabey or Pae'r. He
was taken," says the Duchesse, " to her at nine every
morning. Sometimes she would look at him, and pat
him, and then gave him back to the nurse, and read the
papers. The child was not amused, as he was with his
father. The faces round him were grave, and in the
end he grew naughty and had to be removed."

Napoleon had no fixed hour for seeing the child ; it
was impossible to arrange one. But the Comtesse de
Montesquiou generally brought him at dejeuner, when
Napoleon would seat him on his knee, feed him, or try
to, smear him, and have jokes with him, till they both
laughed. He would play with him as if he was six himself,
and romp with him, sometimes too roughly. The boy
preferred his father to his mother, who really, despite
being the eldest of a large family, was unused to playing
with children. Moreover, he was so precious to her — the
guarantee, she thought, of peace between France and
Austria — that she was half afraid of him.

Napoleon, weary of the coquette in Josephine, loved
the ingenue in Marie Louise. The latter never painted
or dressed up. Meneval noticed, on her first arrival
at St. Cloud, that her dresses were not worn so low
as those of French ladies. But Napoleon also liked the
Archduchess in her. Without passion for Marie Louise,

Home Life 169

he had more deference for her. She suited him very well
as an Empress. Never once was he known to be angry
with her, never once did a reproach escape him. u The
Emperor was satisfied with her/' says Thiers, a a good-
constitutioned young woman, kind, simple, well brought
up, was all he wanted." Chaptal, always prejudiced
against Napoleon, records his words : " If France knew
all the worth of this woman, she would fall down at her
knees ! " " Innocence itself," Napoleon called her years
after at St. Helena, " adorned with all its attractions."

At first Marie Louise was afraid of her husband.
He was too great a man for her. One day he asked
her what instructions she had received with regard to
him from her father. " To be yours entirely, and to
obey you in everything," was the reply. Soon after
her marriage she said to Metternich : " I am sure they
are very anxious about me, that the general opinion is
that I am enduring fearful sufferings. This is a distortion
of the truth. I am not afraid of Napoleon, but I am
beginning to think that he is half afraid of me ! "

And indeed the following repartee shows that the
Corsican ogre had no longer any terrors for his wife.
For he was talking to her one day about some towns
which the Kaiser had seized. " So, you see, your father
is a thief," laughed Napoleon. " Quite right," retorted
Marie Louise ; "but he only steals some estates, and
you steal kingdoms ! " Napoleon laughed again, and
demanded of those present if a wife, who ought to
respect her husband, was right in calling him a thief.

Habitually she addressed him as " Mon ange ! " and
occasionally lapsed into Germanisms, as : " Napoleon,
qu'est ce que veux tu ? " Yet withal, as Meneval says,
"married to Napoleon, she was united to a man too
great for there to be any community of ideas and
feelings."

1 7° An Imperial Victim

She told Lady Burghersh that Napoleon had always
been good to her: "II ne m'a jamais maltraite." She
was always, said Lady Burghersh, a little afraid of him,
and very anxious not to displease him, but grateful to
him for his kindness to her. Her magnificence as
Empress did not appeal to her own simple tastes, but
she liked having the means to do kindnesses and to
satisfy her own generous instincts. Every month, by
her orders, her dressmaker, Leroy, sent gowns to
Vienna for her step-mother and sister Leopoldine.

At St. Helena Napoleon said of Marie Louise that
she was " never at ease with the French, remembering
always that they had killed her aunt, Marie Antoinette.
She was always truthful and discreet, and courteous to
every one, even to those she most detested. She was
cleverer than her father, whom alone of all her family
she loved ; she could not bear her step-mother. She
differed from Josephine in that she was delighted when
she had ten thousand francs to spend. One could have
trusted her with any secret, and she had been enjoined
at Vienna to obey me in everything. She was a charming
child and a good woman, and had saved my life." " And
yet, all said and done, he loved Josephine best. . . . c She
would have followed me to Elba/ he said, with an
oblique reproach."

c< The more Napoleon knew the Empress," says
Meneval, " the more he congratulated himself on his
choice. The character of this Princess seemed to him
to have been made for him ; she had given him happiness
and comfort in the midst of his stormy life. In their
intimate relations she was easy and kind without losing
dignity. Never a complaint or a reproach escaped her
lips. Endowed with a gentle temperament, but reserved
and cautious, her feelings were never expressed with
much vivacity. She was charitable, liked to give ; she

Home Life 171

was simple, and showed at the same time a quiet cheer-
fulness and a mind untainted with bitterness. Though
well educated, she did not parade her knowledge : she
was afraid of being accused of pedantry. A companion
to the Emperor, her attractive qualities earned her
husband's affection, just as her invariable sweetness
fascinated all who lived in her intimacy. In thus
criticizing her I forbid myself all partiality inspired
by the past, as well as all concern with the present.
It would be a mistake to suppose that her inclination
was at variance with her duty : she was natural ; she
did not know how to conceal her feelings ; but subse-
quent events showed that, if she was attracted by the
right course, when that course was easy, she lacked
the necessary fortitude to take it when it was difficult."
Never was Napoleon's Court more gay than during
the winter before the Russian War. Almost every night
there was either a masked ball — the Emperor delighted
in discovering or mystifying the masks — a concert, or a
gala performance at the theatre or the opera. Music
and the play were a great delight to the Empress. The
company of the " Maison de Moliere " were the best
actors in Europe, and, while the Emperor preferred
tragedies, she affected the lighter comedies and operas
in which the French excelled. All dramatic and operatic
stars were lured to Paris, and a gala night at the opera
was a fine sight. The Imperial box faced the stage. On
either side sat the foreign ambassadors and the French
ministers. The whole of the grand tier of boxes was
filled with court ladies in full dress. In the stalls were
men only, but blazing with decorations. The second tier
of boxes was filled by the holders of tickets sent out by
court officials, ladies in full dress, men in court dress.
Between the acts Imperial footmen in green liveries
dispensed refreshments.

172 An Imperial Victim

The Due de Rovigo, Minister of Police, who saw
as it were behind the scenes, describes Marie Louise's
popularity.

u When Marie Louise spoke she fascinated one.
Her success in France was her own work ; for I declare,
on my honour, that on no occasion did the Government
employ special means to secure her a good reception
in public. When she was to make an appearance in
a procession, or at the theatre, the only supervision
exercised by the Government consisted in seeing that
nothing occurred contrary to the most rigid etiquette ;
it was the only control I permitted myself to have over
her. For instance, when I knew that she intended going
to the theatre I hired all the boxes opposite to hers,
as well as those which might cause her any annoyance
by overlooking her. I then took the precaution to
send the tickets of the boxes to families of position who
were glad to fill them. Thus I manipulated the audience
who attended the play the same day as the Empress.
As to precautions as to how she would be received by
the pit, I never took any. The Empress Marie Louise,
when she made a public entrance, was in the habit
of making three curtsies, and they never waited for
the third before giving thousands of cheers. It was
her herself that dispensed me from taking any trouble
about her. When she had saluted she sat modestly
in the back of the box, for she disliked being made
a cynosure."

The opposite of Josephine, Marie Louise did no1
understand that, " to gain the hearts of the French, il
is only necessary to bow and smile apropos" Th<
Duchesse supported her attitude when Madame Duran<
complained to the former that people at the opera wen
disappointed because she sat at the back of the box.
"Why trouble?" said Madame de Montebello. Madami

Home Life 173

Durand replied that many people only came to the
opera to see her. " When one is straightforward, as
she is," replied the Duchesse, " one should just be
oneself, and not made an exhibition of for human
respect." Thus it came about that she often looked
bored in public, and hid the candle of her attraction
under the bushel of private life. Thus it was that she
was cold and weighed her words in public. She never
held long conversations, and never talked politics.
Though well read, she had none of the light sparkle,
the esprit, which makes conversation in French. Her-
self so natural, she mistrusted the fashionable French
character of the period, with its affectation of fainting
and posing. But, if in public, she sometimes looked
dull, from etiquette, once back in her own apartments
she was cheerful, sweet, affable, adored by all who had
to do with her. Used from her childhood to court
life, she was easy to serve, for she knew how to combine
two incompatible things — dignity and kindness. Never
was she known to be out of temper ; she was not fickle
in her likings ; she was to be relied on, and never
sprinkled " court holy water " — capricious favouritism.
Marie Louise could be even sweeter than was her face
when she was at ease, either with her intimates or with
those with whom she had to do.

With her husband's family Marie Louise got on
much better than Josephine, because she was of a rank
above them. Napoleon wished her to be polite and
kind, but not familiar. Doubtless he considered his
sisters not good examples or good companions for
his innocent young wife. With none of them was she
on such intimate terms as with the Duchesse de Monte-
bello. The vulgar, dissipated, pretentious, quarrelling
Bonaparte sisters were not the society to which Marie
Louise had been accustomed in her own family. The

i?4 An Imperial Victim

only member of her husband's family she really affected
was Jerome's good wife, Catherine of Wiirtemberg, a
German, and of her own class.

Josephine had been at no pains with Madame Mere,
but Marie Louise was considerate to her. That astute
old lady was at first very reserved with her grand new
daughter-in-law, but went the right way to work with
her, and ended by making herself respected. One day,
during the Emperor's absence, the Empress came to
Madame Mere and invited herself to dinner. " Madame,
I have come to ask for some dinner. Don't put yourself
out ; I have not come as Empress — but just to see you ! "
cc Mon Dieu ! " replied Madame Mere, drawing her down
to her and kissing her on the forehead, <c I also shall not
stand on ceremony. I will receive you as my daughter.
The wife of the Emperor shall have the dinner of the
Emperor's mother ! "

Marie Louise was not extravagant with dress as
Josephine was, and never ran into debt. Every month
she saw and signed a report of the last month's expenses.
Balhouey, her private financial secretary, looked into
all money matters, and settled them. With Josephine
her principal lady had attended to them, and there had
been trouble. But Napoleon appointed Balhouey to
Marie Louise because he knew him to be an honest
man. Her private charity was larger than people gave
her credit for. Every month she gave away ^200
out of her dress allowance of ^2,000 a month. If a
case of deserving charity was mentioned she never refused
it. This sum was double that which Josephine had
been used to give, and Josephine was considered very
generous. But much of Marie Louise's alms adhered
to the palm of the Duchesse de Montebello's secretary,
as the Duchesse did not take the trouble to supervise
the distribution herself.

.

Home Life 175

In spite of her magnificent trousseau and her beautiful
figure and her large dress allowances, Marie was not
elegant and well dressed like Josephine, though she
employed the same workpeople. It was partly her own
fault, and partly the ridiculous etiquette which made
it impossible for them to fit her themselves. Moreover,
the Duchesse would not help in the matter, saying it
was the concern of the dame d'atours, and not of the
dame d'honneur. In later life Marie Louise's taste for
dress developed even to excess.

Napoleon took an interest in her toilettes. He had
a weakness for linen dresses because one of his early loves
was wont to wear them. One day he came up to the
Empress and asked eagerly if her dress was linen. When
she replied in the negative he drew back, chilled.
Another day he presented her with a mohair dress, which,
however, she disliked, because it scorched if she went
near the fire. Napoleon wished to encourage French
industries, such as Lyons silks. No cottons or foreign
wools were to be worn in the palace. He threatened to
burn all Indian cashmeres. " When you give me any-
thing as light and warm as cashmere I will wear it," said
the Empress. Isabey made a design for a woollen dress
and shawl with white ground, but she did not like it.

The Emperor was very fond of teasing and arguing
with his wife's ladies, and was amused rather than offended
if some inexperienced femme rouge or femme noire forgot
herself so far as to answer him bluntly or disagree with
him. One day, when he was in the Empress's room, he
found he had forgotten his handkerchief. A beautiful
lace and embroidered one belonging to her was offered
him. He inquired the value, and was told that it was
between seventy and eighty francs. Whereupon he
remarked that, were he one of her ladies, he would steal
one every day to increase his salary.

An Imperial Victim

Napoleon had a great- dislike to seeing novels lying
about in his wife's rooms, or even in her ladies' drawing-
room ; therefore when he came in the volumes had to
be hurriedly hidden. Anxious, however, to minister to
Marie Louise's great love of reading, he ordered his
librarian to make a selection of books for her. But when
they came he found among them the " Satires/' of Juvenal,
and of this he disapproved for his wife's reading. He
reprimanded the librarian, and henceforth all Marie
Louise's literature came to her through her husband's
study.

She read elementary books in German, French, and
Italian. Her reading was varied rather than deep. She
was better acquainted with the history of the Empire than
with that of France, but preferred ornithology, arbori-
culture, botany. She was well read in German, French,
and English classics, which she had bought and read, and
in plays. Her only hobby was collecting coins.

The Empress possessed a Mass-book for every day in
the year. One of the most beautiful was an eighteenth-
century missal which had belonged to Marguerite of
Lorraine. Other religious books were " Conversations 01
the Sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ," a catechisi
the <c Bible for Young People." Cardinal de Rohan w<
her senior chaplain ; Duvoisin, Bishop of Nantes, h<
confessor. Very Gallican in his ideas, and author of th<
u Treatise on Tolerance," he told her, in answer to her
inquiries, that, as she dined with the Emperor, she could
dispense with fasting, as also with the public Easter
Communion, which would have been distasteful to him.

CHAPTER XI

THE APOGEE

BY the spring of 1812 Napoleon had decided on war
with Russia. Once again the hearths and homes
of France had been ransacked for recruits, and these,
stiffened with the veterans of a hundred fights, had gone
to make up the Grande Armee, which was now awaiting,
on the eastern frontier of the Empire, for its chief to
take command. But, ere he launched out into the wide
expanse of Russia, Napoleon intended to make sure of
his communications with his base, so far behind him.
He would fain leave Prussia, the Confederation of the
Rhine, Austria, in utter subservience to his will. As to
the latter Power, its tendency was not all that he could
wish. The Kaiser, indeed, still dazzled with the success
of his daughter's marriage, was distinctly pro-French.
But then, as Napoleon said of him, "The Emperor
Francis only keeps for himself the portfolio of bien a faire
in his dominions," and it was Metternich who had to be
taken into account. Now Metternich was decidedly pro-
Russian.

To counteract him Napoleon determined to parade
the Austrian alliance for all it was worth, and to parade
it in the tangible form of Marie Louise herself. Ere he
went on to take command of the Grande Armee he arranged
to take the Empress with him to Dresden. Then, at the
Court of his very good friend and ally, the King of
i— ii 177

An Imperial Victim

Saxony, he gave rendezvous to his father-in-law. More-
over, he issued invitations to his principal vassals of the
Rhine Confederation, and to Prussia, to be of the com-
pany. They flew to obey his behest, but Prussia hung
back.

But if the meeting at Dresden between Napoleon and
Franz was to be purely political on Napoleon's part,
undertaken to gain, if not Austria's active co-operation
against Russia, at least her neutrality, to Marie Louise,
all unaware that she was a trump card in his game, the
journey was one of pure delight, for was she not to see
her father again.

The precious boy was left behind, settled at Meudon
for the summer, u in perfect health. The business of
dentition is quite finished as regards the first teeth. He
will be weaned at the end of the month." There is a
pretty picture given of his first birthday, spent at the
Trianon, playing on the lawn with his parents : Napoleon
popping his tricorne hat on the child's fair curls, his
sword in the baby hands, and the child toddling along,
as if playing at blind-man's-bufF with his father, and the
Emperor flinging himself on the grass to prevent the
tumbles.

The King of Rome had his own household. His
wet-nurses and clothes cost 351,050 francs; his house-
hold and pages 258,000 ; the heating of his rooms
416,000, his kitchen and cellar (!) one million francs!
" With much grace he received in his pavilion " in the
Tuileries gardens in the spring. At Compiegne a special
arbour had been erected for him. Madame de Montes-
quiou once took the boy to Bagatelle to see Josephine,
who wept over him. There were visits to St. Cloud and
Rambouillet in the spring. The Emperor woke Marie
Louise up at dawn to accompany him into Paris to sec
his works of improvement there. No lady went with

The Apogee 179

them, only one equerry or aide-de-camp. Sometimes her
suite came to meet her, and if she was tired, which was
not often the case, she drove home.

On May 8 the Emperor and Empress left St. Cloud
in the same travelling carriage. The start had been
delayed a month in consequence of the famine prepara-
tions. Napoleon took both households and the larger
part of the Court with him, so that the beginning of the
greatest war the world had hitherto known was like a
triumphal progress of a conqueror. En route princes
and crowned heads flew to do him honour — at Mayence
the Grand-duke and Duchess of Hesse-Darmstadt, the
Prince of Anhalt : at Aschaffenburg, where he crossed
the Rhine, the King of Wiirtemberg, the Grand-duke
of Baden, while the Prince Primate lunched them. At
Wiirzburg, to Marie Louise's delight, she was the guest
of her uncle, the Duke. Next day they slept at Baireuth,
where Napoleon's camp-bed is still shown, and where,
tradition says, the White Lady of the Hohenzollerns,
who haunts the castle, appeared to Napoleon and hunted
him out of his bed into another room ! Met at Freiburg
by the King and Queen of Saxony, on the 26th they were
at Dresden, and took up their residence in the state
apartments of the King's palace.

Napoleon had driven across Germany the cynosure
of multitudes whose curiosity overcame their detesta-
tion. u Never indeed had the potentate they hated
appeared to them enhaloed with so much prestige. Folk
spoke with a kind of awe of the 600,000 men who
were flocking to his call from almost every corner of
Europe ; they suspected him of projects even more daring
than those he had already conceived ; people said he
was passing through Russia on his way to India ; they
spread a thousand fictions a hundred times more mad
than his real intentions, and so much had his repeated

i8o An Imperial Victim

successes discouraged them from hoping what their hatred
longed for that they almost believed in the accomplish-
ment of these designs. Huge bonfires were prepared
along the road, and when night fell these were ignited
to illumine his march, so that the excitement of curiosity
almost produced the eagerness of love and joy."

Marie Louise travelled with a happy heart. In
March she had written to her father : " The Emperor
begs me to say a thousand kind things to you. He
also begs me to inform you that if we have war he
will take me to Dresden, where I shall spend two months,
and where he hopes to see you also. You cannot imagine,
dear papa, what delight this hope gives me. I am sure |
you will not refuse me the pleasure of bringing the dear
mamma and my brothers and sisters to see me. But
I beg you, dear papa, do not talk about it, for nothing
is settled yet."

At Napoleon's levee next morning there was a "parterre
of kings" and princes to pay their respects. This Dres-
den visit was the zenith of his splendour. Surrounded
by a bevy of sovereigns, his Court surpassed them all in
magnificence. They hastened to do him service, as vassals
to a chief. The oldest names and the most illustrious
families bowed before the conqueror's beck and call. As
he said at St. Helena : <c The reign of Maria Louise
had been a very short one, but she must have enjoyed it,
for she had the world at her feet."

Napoleon was not at Dresden as a guest, but as a
host ; he did not accept hospitality, he gave it. His
household had brought from Paris all that could enhance
the splendour of this Court at a foreign Court — the crown
diamonds, with which the Empress was literally covered,
the silver gilt toilet service that the city of Paris ha(
given her at her marriage. The entire company of th<
Theatre fran$ais had been requisitioned to provide amus(

The Apogee

ment, Talma at their head. "As at Tilsit, Napoleon
crammed every one who approached him with diamonds."

Two days later came the state entry of Their Majesties
of Austria. Ferdinand, the heir, had been left at home.
His father excused his absence on the score of shyness.
" Let me have him for a year," says Napoleon, "and 1
will unfreeze him ! " Franz brought no Court with him,
and felt small before his son-in-law's splendid surround-
ings. Napoleon was obliged to order that he should be
treated with sufficient attention at receptions. At their
first meeting the Kaiser related to the Emperor a genea-
logical discovery he professed to have made, to the effect
that the Bonapartes had been rulers at Treviso in the
early Middle Ages. Napoleon proudly responded that
he was " content to be the Rudolf of Hapsburg of his
family."

Metternich, who of course had followed his master
to Dresden to have a finger in the political pie, and
who was outwardly obsequious and loyal to Napoleon, re-
marks that " the attitude of the two sovereigns was suitable
to their respective positions, but was very cold." The
truth is that Franz was torn between delight over his
favourite daughter's magnificent position and a wounded
amour propre, feeling that Austria was humiliated.
Politically he hedged, as it were, promising assistance
to Napoleon, and at the same time assuring Alexander
that it should be void, yet all the time believing in
Napoleon's future success and endeavouring to profit
by it. Personally he was bored to death with all this
show, and spent his leisure walking about the town
shopping, and marvelling over the excessive energy and
laboriousness 'of his son-in-law. It was Metternich, and
Hardenberg, acting for Prussia, who did the diplomatic
work and tried to circumvent Napoleon.

But the latter had yet another secret adversary to

1 82 An Imperial Victim

contend with in the shape of the Kaiserinn, whom he now
met for the first time. She, " whose grandparents had
been dispossessed in Italy by General Bonaparte, distin-
guished herself by her aversion, which she vainly
disguised ; betrayed herself by impulses which Napoleon
seized upon and smilingly crushed ; but she used her
esprit and charm to worm herself gently into people's
hearts, and there instil her hatred of him."

Maria Ludovica Beatrix was now twenty-four, "pretty,
piquante, rather uncommon, a pretty nun," spirituelle,and
proud of her birth and her crown. She looked upon
Napoleon as a parvenu, and took no pains to hide her
contempt and dislike. Napoleon saw through her, and
was determined to conquer her. As the Kaiserinn's
health was so bad that she was unable in the procession to
walk the long length of the suite of apartments, she was
carried in a sedan-chair, by the side of which walked
Napoleon, hat in one hand, the other leaning on the door,
chatting playfully with his witty antagonist.

At Dresden Marie Louise must have noticed the
great change that had come over her step-mother with
regard to herself. The fact was that the Empress of
Austria was jealous of the Empress of the French, though
the Kaiser shut his eyes to it. The victim whom she had
been instrumental in sacrificing to the Minotaur, instead
of returning to them a martyr, reappeared not only as a
magnificent sovereign, but also as an indulged, beloved,
and happy wife, and a happy mother, which last phase
must have rankled in the breast of the childless wife. The
raw girl she had trained and ruled had shot up to a height
far above her, and she was obliged to yield her precedence.
At St. Helena Las Casas ventured to ask if the Kaiserinn
was not the sworn enemy of Marie Louise. " Only in so
far," replied Napoleon, " as went a nice little court
hatred, a heart hatred, veiled under daily letters of four

The Apogee 183

pages, full of tenderness and cajoling." " The Kaiserinn
made up to Napoleon very much, and was specially
coquette with him when he was present ; but, as soon as
his back was turned, she thought only of weaning Marie
Louise from him ; she was annoyed at being unable to
succeed in obtaining any hold over him."

But she had to hide her annoyance. Nearly every
morning she came to the Empress's toilette, and rum-
maging at her pleasure among the Parisian laces, ribbons,
stuffs, shawls, and jewels of her wealthy step-daughter,
she generally carried something away with her, for Marie
Louise was nothing if not generous to lavishness in the
way of presents.

Politics, during the stay at Dresden, troubled her not
a whit. She gave herself up entirely to the pleasure of
being with her family. Napoleon was extremely busy,
occupied, not only with diplomacy, but also with minute
details of the great military expedition afoot. Marie
Louise, knowing how soon he must leave her, and
anxious not to miss any of his society, scarcely dared
to leave the palace ; her step-mother laughed at her for
her assiduous wifely attention.

Marie Louise was too young, too cheerful, and too
natural not to take a certain pleasure in eclipsing her
step-mother by the splendour of her appearance. " If
Napoleon requested more reserve she resisted, even wept,
and the Emperor yielded, either from affection, fatigue,
or absent-mindedness. People even said that, in spite of
her origin, this Princess, Marie Louise, permitted herself
to mortify German amour prof re by invidious compari-
sons between her old country and her new. Napoleon
scolded her for it, but kindly. The patriotism he had
evoked pleased him, and he fancied he could make up
for injudicious remarks by presents."

At St. Helena Napoleon called his time at Dresden

184 An Imperial Victim

his happiest day, for he had every sovereign except the
Czar, George III., and the Sultan at his feet. The
visit was of course celebrated with the usual round of
festivities, at which Marie Louise appeared in all her
reflected glory. But there was business done, too.
Bassano, Minister of Foreign Affairs, wrote to Otto,
French ambassador at Vienna : " Their Majesties will
probably leave Dresden the day after to-morrow. Their
stay in this city has been marked by signs of the most
reciprocal understanding and the greatest intimacy. To-
day the two Emperors know and appreciate each other.
The embarrassment and the timidity of the Emperor of
Austria have been mollified by the frankness and straight-
forwardness of Napoleon. Long conversations have taken
place between the two sovereigns. All the interests of
Austria have been discussed at them, and I think the
Emperor Francis has gleaned from his journey a more
entire trust in the feelings of the Emperor Napoleon for
him, and a rich harvest of good advice." But the minister
had also noted the barely disguised attitude of the
Kaiserinn, for he adds that, if the Emperor Francis had
seen with his own eyes how happy the Empress Marie
Louise was, " such a happy sight for a father had pro-
duced upon another august personage more surprise than
emotion. "

On the very eve of Napoleon's departure from Dresden
the King of Prussia came hurrying at last in response to
a command rather than an invitation. Prussia was still
smarting from Jena, and under the French occupation ;
but Napoleon soothed and smoothed matters somewhat.
Nothing said or done at Dresden took from the visit its
pacific aspect ; Napoleon was the sovereign rather than the
general. Yet the rumbling of the growing storm was
sounding nearer and nearer ; there was a feeling in the air
as of living over a volcano.

The Apogee 185

Coming events cast their shadows before during that
Dresden visit in more ways than one. A tiny cloud
rose on the horizon of Marie Louise. She happened,
one evening, to be passing down a gallery when
she met one of her father's chamberlains, honorarily
attached to her suite, half diplomat, half soldier. He
was a personage of no importance, to whom the Empress
merely threw a passing word and never gave a second
thought. He wore a black bandage across his face, con-
cealing the loss of one eye. It was General Neipperg.

On May 29 Napoleon left Dresden to join the
Grande Armee, after bidding a very affectionate farewell
to his wife, who seemed much troubled at parting with
him. She had given him a new picture of herself by
Gerard, with their boy in her arms. But her father
came to spend the whole day with her to comfort her.
Then he went on ahead to Prague to prepare for her
reception, for she was to come to him there on a few
weeks' visit. The French ambassador at Vienna was at
once invited to join the Kaiser there. Received with
very special attentions, he records his impressions to his
chief in Paris.

" The Emperor of Austria had given orders to have
me conducted, with the personages of my suite, to a
mansion which had been prepared for me by the side
of the palace. On descending from my carriage I was
informed that all the service of the Court was at my
disposal, including the carriages. This attention was all
the more appreciable as on the mountain on which the
castle of Prague stands there is no convenience for
visitors. The next morning the Grand Chamberlain
wrote to inform me that Their Majesties would be very
pleased to receive me in private audience, and that I
should have the honour of dining with them. I found
the Emperor exceedingly pleased with all he had seen

1 86 An Imperial Victim

and heard at Dresden. He congratulated himself on
having made the intimate acquaintance of his august
son-in-law ; he spoke feelingly of the happiness of his
dear Louise ; he was impatiently awaiting her arrival at
Prague. He was already enjoying the pleasure which
would give her the grand and picturesque view from
the castle down on to the fine river, and the great city
all illuminated. The Empress of the French will enjoy
a coup d* ceil unique in its way, and which will strike
her all the more as she has never seen Prague. Knowing
that the Emperor prefers to speak German, I addressed
him in that language and was glad I had done so.
The monarch expressed his feelings in a manner which
touched me very much. He told me that he should be
delighted to keep his illustrious daughter with him as
long as she wished to stay at Prague. To-morrow,"
he added, " I shall go with the Empress and meet her,
and I shall enjoy every moment she can give me, and
shall only part with her with the greatest regret." Then,
speaking of the affairs of the moment, the Emperor said
he could not understand Russia's behaviour ; they must
have lost their heads at St. Petersburg to wish to
measure themselves against a power as great as France.
u Your army," he added, " has at least a hundred
thousand men more than theirs, you have officers more
distinguished than theirs ; your Emperor alone is equal
to eighty thousand men."

The ambassador's interview with the Kaiserinn was
very guarded, and the conversation general. Though the
lady chatted u with infinite charm and ease, she touched
only on the topics of literature and art, with which she
occupied herself much." He went on to describe how
" this Court, generally so simple in its habits, will be
of great magnificence during the stay of Her Majesty the
Empress " ; how the Kaiser, with all his great officials,

The Apogee 187

was going to meet her, how the guards and the police
had been reinforced, and the Hungarian Noble Guard
had been sent for from Vienna. The next day the
Kaiser's young family were to arrive, and grand illu-
minations, balls, and other fetes were in train. " The
hearts of all the good people of Bohemia fly to meet
her." The country, thought the ambassador, was ready
to do anything demanded of it. General Klenau told
him that if he were allowed to use the influence of
St. Neppomuck, the patron saint of Bohemia, whose
statue on the bridge is saluted by every passer-by, he
could rely on raising two hundred thousand Bohemians
in a short time, so much did he regret not being able
to serve under the greatest captain the world had
ever seen.

The drift of this remark shows that Marie Louise,
now again, as ever, was a political card, played alternately
by her husband or her father. For all the pomp and
splendour with which she was to be surrounded at
Prague she really was regarded by each as a kind of
hostage. To Austria her presence was the security that
the Austrian offensive and defensive alliance did not
degenerate into mere vassalage ; to France she was the
guarantee of neutrality in Napoleon's rear should any
reverse — which seemed so utterly improbable — befall him
in Russia.

Napoleon's departure left Marie Louise at last free
for a few days' sight-seeing in Dresden. Then, on
June 4, to the sound of guns and bells, and her carriage
escorted by the Saxon royal family, she started at
dav/n, accompanied by her uncle the Duke of Wurzburg.
At the frontier Bohemian magnates received her, and
chevaux Ugers replaced the Saxon cuirassiers. Her route
was one long ovation. At Toplitz she spent the night
at the castle of Prince Clary, the Emperor's Grand

1 88 An Imperial Victim

Chamberlain, deputed to meet her at the frontier. The
whole town was en fete and illuminated, and a procession
of miners with swinging lanterns serenaded the Empress
under her windows with verses which each ended with
a cheer. At five o'clock the next evening salvoes of
artillery at Prague announced her approach. In state
her father and step-mother met her at the abbey of
St. Margaret, and she got into their carriage, an open one,
that the populace might have a good view of her. Thus
she entered Prague by torchlight, sitting to the right
of the Empress, passing through the illuminated streets
between a double line of soldiers to the welcoming din
of cannon and bells and trumpets.

The castle of the Hdradschin, backed by the Laurien-
zenberg, towers, a vast pile, for centuries the residence
of Bohemian kings, above the most imposing of the
Imperial capitals. Here, at the foot of the grand stair-
case, a crowd of city magnates and of court officials
awaited the Empress's arrival. Prince Clary, Counts
Clam, Kinsky, and Trautmannsdorf, were among those
attached to her suite. " Her Majesty," writes Count
Otto, c< appeared but little fatigued by her journey,
but for a slight cold, which did not prevent her being
very cheerful, and showing to her parents how pleased
she was to be in the midst of them."

Good news of the progress of the Grande Armee
helped to make Marie Louise very happy at Prague.
The Archduke Charles arrived, and the Imperial family
was now complete. Nor was a final touch wanting. On
June 1 1 she wrote a warm, loving letter to the Comtesse
Colloredo on the delightful news she had heard from her
father that her old friend was coming to see her. The
Kaiser had forgiven the past, Count Colloredo was dead,
and on such a happy occasion as the present Marie Louise
was not to miss the old friend to whom she had remained

The Apogee 189

so attached. Only one cloud now overshadowed her
happiness, and that was the Emperor's absence. " My
delight of being with my family is clouded by the grief of
being separated from the Emperor. I cannot be happy
except with him."

Madame de Crenneville was ill, and could not accom-
pany her mother. To her, therefore, Marie Louise
writes news of her son, " who is weaned, and walks alone
at thirteen months, but the happiness of being with a
father whom I love so tenderly is marred by the absence
of the Emperor, which is enough to damp this joy, and I
shall be only quite peaceful and contented when I see him
again. God preserve you from such a separation ! it is
too cruel for a loving heart, and if it lasts long I cannot
bear it." She tells of the pleasure of having Countess
Colloredo with her, and adds that her health is much
improved by the air of Prague. " We make long
excursions; in the evenings we are en famille. Yet I shall
tear myself away from this visit to return to France,
where an interest which is very dear recalls me, and which
is the only one which can console me a little for the
absence of his father."

Nevertheless, Marie Louise contrived to enjoy herself
amazingly at Prague, where everything was done to
amuse her. She was the centre of everything as she had
never been before. What a change from her girlhood's
status at her father's Court, a mere Archduchess, barely
introduced to society, with no will of her own ! What a
change even from merely living in the reflected glory of
Napoleon ! Fetes succeeded each other. The Kaiser
gave and received state banquets at which she was seated
between her parents and served by Count Clary, the
Grand Chamberlain. The various Archdukes, uncles and
brothers, and notabilities of all kinds, including that pillar
of society, the old Prince de Ligne, had assembled to meet

An Imperial Victim

her. She gave afternoon dances for her three young sisters,
and the young Colloredo people ; to which, by her special
wish, only her household were invited. With great
pleasure and pride she exhibited to her relations her new
accomplishment of horsewomanship in the riding-school of
Prince Wallenstein's great palace ; a few days later she
went out riding with her father, who, seeing how
delighted she was with the mount he had provided, made
her a present of him, and she promptly named the horse
Hdradschin.

Marie went sight-seeing about Prague, to the Museums
of Natural History and Antiquities, to the School of Art,
to the Library, where she saw the earliest book printed in
Bohemia, in 1468, a ninth-century Slavonian poem written
on parchment, a beautiful missal of 1360 with exquisite
miniatures, and last, but not least, John Hus's autograph
challenge which he stuck up on the gate of the University
of Prague, offering to dispute the articles of his belief
with all comers ; also an autograph letter of Ziska's, and
the MSS. of Tycho Brahe, 1599.

Then she made excursions in the country : to the pretty
public garden of Bubenz on the Moldau, the gardens
of Count Wratislaw, the hermitage of St. Yvan, and the
old castle of Karlstein. A charming trip was made down
the river to Count Chotek's castle, on a pretty island,
when the Imperial guests were rowed about the numerous
branches of the Moldau. The Burgrave of Bohemia,
Count Kolowrat, gave her a splendid ball, and there were
gala performances at the Grand Theatre, one of Paer's
operas being specially performed. The last day of her stay
there was an evening fete on the island of Arquebusiers.

On July i the happy time came to an end. Escort<
with pomp through a vast crowd to the outskirts of th<
city, Marie Louise, accompanied by her father, left
Prague early, and went by SchofFen to Karlsbad. At

The Apogee I91

Frankenthal they went six hundred feet down a tin-mine,
the Empress in an arm-chair, her ladies descending after
her one by one. At Freyheim there were national dances
and music. The next day came the parting with her
father. Under what different circumstances they were to
meet again ! With her step-mother she had parted at
Prague " plus franchement que Ton ne s'etait retrouvee."
A little flattering purr from the Kaiserinn had followed
her. She bids her husband tell Marie Louise how glad
she had been to see her and how hourly she thinks of
her.

Sleeping at Bamberg in the Duke of Wurtemberg's
palace, she reached the next day Wurzburg, where she was
the guest of her uncle in his magnificent palace, the
Versailles of Germany. They made excursions to the
castle of Warneck, water-parties and illuminations took
place, and, what must have pleased Marie Louise most,
concerts conducted by the musical Duke himself.

On July 1 8 the booming of the cannon of the
Invalides told the Parisians that their Empress was once
more among them.

CHAPTER XII

THE RUMBLING OF THE STORM

MARIE LOUISE'S first term of grass widowhood
was tragic in the contrasts between its beginning
and ending ; between her proud and happy time at
Prague, the " world at her feet," to be followed by a
loneliness at St. Cloud, accentuated by her late reunion
with her family, clouded by Malet's conspiracy, over-
shadowed by the disasters of the retreat from Russia, and
finally, closing with Napoleon's furtive return, almost as a
fugitive — in a word, the beginning of the end.

Yet the Empress's return to France was welcomed
with enthusiasm. Two days later Le Moniteur reports :
"An immense crowd went yesterday, Sunday, to St. Cloud,
in lovely weather. At six in the evening the Empress
drove through the park in a caleche. At the sight of
her Majesty and the King of Rome most hearty cheers
arose from all sides, and accompanied her on her
way."

But Marie Louise was sad and lonely. Her first
words, written to her father on her return, are : " God
grant that my husband may soon come back, for the
separation is very painful, and I am not brave enough
not to complain."

She found her boy delicious ; a strong and beautiful
child at a most bewitching age. " My son is very well,"
she writes to his grandfather, " and never stronger. He

192

193

The Rumbling of the Storm 195

already runs quite alone, and has already fifteen teeth ;
but he does not talk yet."

To Madame de Crenneville she enlarges more, saying
that, after three months' absence, she would hardly have
known him, that , he " daily grows sweeter and grows
much and becomes prettier," walks, but is backward in
talking, and she ends by begging for details of Victoire's
boy and sending a fashion-plate of children's frocks and
a present of patterns.

Gerard had just finished a beautiful portrait of this
exceptionally lovely child, and the Empress despatched
Bausset, the prefet dupalais, with it to the doting father.
Travelling night and day across Europe, Bausset reached
Napoleon's camp on the heights above the Borodino.
The Emperor's delight at the picture was touching.
He sent for all his staff to admire it, and then had
it placed on a chair outside his tent that his braves
might share his pleasure and admiration. " Messieurs,"
he said to his generals, " if my son were but fifteen
years older, he would be here in person, and not in
portrait."

On the Sunday after her return the Empress, in
the Gallery of Apollo, received the homage of the great
bodies of the State, and the diplomatic corps, and the
persons who had the entree to the grand receptions. For,
though Napoleon was ruling France from a distance of
over two thousand miles, Marie Louise was to be his
representative, a mere figure-head, indeed, but a pleasing
one. For " her manner was easier, she was less stout,
and her figure perfect. Her fine eyes were full of smiles,
and a great freshness made her pleasant to look upon,
a noble and graceful figure." She was still very shy,
but being now cast upon her own resources — playing first
fiddle, as it were — she made a great effort to be gracious,
and that very effort made her stiff. Every Sunday after

I — 12

196 An Imperial Victim

Mass she received all who had been presented at Court, and
who might come without invitation, and went round the
gallery into which the chapel opened speaking to every
one. On important occasions she also had state receptions.
Napoleon, always considerate towards her, had arranged
that, in order that she should not be dull, she should,
every evening, receive persons who were on the list of
petit es entrees ', people whom he thought she would like.
In this small circle she was quite at her ease, full of
charm and freshness, asking those she wished to play
billiards with her, the game showing off her fine figure
to advantage ; whist-tables were always set out in the
adjoining drawing-room, and a concert or a play always
brought the evening to a close.

On August 15 the Empress drove into Paris, where
the Fete-Napole"on was celebrated with enormous en-
thusiasm by huge crowds. In the Throne-room of the
Tuileries she received the great dignitaries and the
diplomats, surrounded by her Court, after which she
heard Mass in the chapel, celebrated by her chaplain,
Cardinal de Rohan, and a Te Deum was sung. In the
evening Numa, an opera by her master, Pae'r, was played
in the palace theatre. Then the Empress stepped out
on to the balcony of the Salles des Marechaux and at
sight of her a roar of cheering rose up from the crowded
gardens and terraces into the summer night. From the
balcony she listened to an open-air concert, watched the
fireworks in the Place de la Concorde ; then back to
St. Cloud and her boy, to sleep.

Meanwhile Alexander was luring Napoleon on into
Russia, while behind him lay Austria in Metternich's
clever " neutrality/* Till Smolensk, all was success ;
Napoleon should have called a halt ; but hitherto he
had only signed peace in his enemies' capitals. A month
after the Fete-Napoleon, an apparent conqueror, he was

The Rumbling of the Storm 197

entering a deserted Moscow, with plans for the East
and India simmering in his dazzled brain.

But, though life at St. Cloud flowed on in uneventful
monotony, Marie Louise was ill and worried. There
was discontent in France ; a new levy had been ordered,
and now that Napoleon was so far away tongues wagged
more freely. There were no parties in Paris that
autumn ; every one was uneasy. In every drawing-roorn
hung a war-map, into which anxious women stuck pins
as they followed the movements of their nearest and
dearest. By the beginning of October bad news was
beginning vaguely to circulate.

Marie Louise, sending to Countess Colloredo a watch
and a doll for her little Ferdinand and Caroline, hopes
that " the brilliant victories of the Emperor may soon send
him back." Glad to be back again with her son, and
in the midst of a people she esteems as much as the
French, u I have found my son grown and more beautiful ;
he is so intelligent that I am never tired of having him
with me ; but, in spite of all his delightful ways, he cannot
succeed in making me forget, even for a few moments,
his father's absence. My health was all the better for
the journey, which did not tire me ; but since my return
it has been affected by my mental anxiety, and I have
been very ailing for a long time. I am better now,
without having taken anything, for when I asked the
doctors' advice they only prescribed me what was im-
possible— try to be reasonable and tranquil."

On October 4 the Empress drove into Paris to hear
Mass and a Te Deum at the Tuileries for the victories,
and a Te Deum was sung at Notre Dame. At the end
of the month burst the bombshell of Malet's plot.

At eight o'clock in the morning of October 23 the
Empress was startled by a sudden clatter of horses' hoofs
beneath her windows as they galloped into the courtyard

198 An Imperial Victim

of St. Cloud. Rushing on to the balcony in her dressing-
gown, her hair all hanging down, she saw a troop of
the Garde a cheval, sent in hot haste by the Minister
of War.

There was mischief afoot in Paris. But Marie Louise
did not lose her head. One thought of her son's safety,
a rush to his rooms, and then she calmly gave orders
to have the handful of troops which constituted the guard
beaten to arms, the gates closed, and the palace put in a
state of defence. There were but 42 infantry at St. Cloud,
under command of Beauharnats, the chevalier d'honneur.
Nineteen of them were posted in the grand courtyard
under the commandant, 1 5 in the square, 7 at the cross-
roads. Of the mounted troops, 25 in number, 10 were
kept as orderlies, 19 picketed on guard to the Empress
and the King of Rome. In the barracks at Sevres were
126 men in readiness, including mounted men, gen-
darmes d'elite, and sappers. Beauharnais hastily ordered
reinforcements from Courbevoie, Rueil, and from the
depot of the guard at St. Cyr and at St. Germain. Scarcely
had this been done than a second messenger came riding
from Paris with the news that order had been restored.
At the very last minute, owing to the promptitude and
alertness of one man, one of the most audacious con-
spiracies of history had petered out.

Charles Francois de Malet, a former general in
Moreau's army, though of ancient Franche-Comte
nobility, suspected in 1807 by Napoleon of republican
plots, had been shut up in the Conciergerie, and then
detained in a madhouse. " More of a fanatic than a
conspirator/' yet there was much method in his madness.
Brooding over his treatment, he hatched and nearly
brought forth his revenge. The story reads like that
of a comic-opera conspiracy. The keynote was to spread
a report that Napoleon had died in Russia, and, by

The Rumbling of the Storm 199

obtaining possession of the fortress and garrison of Paris,
to set up a provisional government, of which Malet was
to be the head.

The invention of the plot was Malet's own. He
had but two accomplices ; one, the Abbe Lafon, drew up
the legal documents required.

At ten o'clock on the night of October 22 Malet
escaped from his madhouse to Spanish priests in the
Place Royale, where his wife had secretly sent his uniform.
There he met by appointment one Rateau, a corporal of
the National Guard, who disguised himself as an officer
of artillery, and a sucking barrister named Boutreux,
who made himself up as a commissary of police. To
pass the time the three conspirators sat down to a punch
supper.

At three in the morning came the moment for
action. They hied them to the Popincourt barracks,
only to find that there was no admittance at night except
by the colonel's orders. The latter, Soulier, lived out
of barracks. Malet, pretending to be General Lamotte,
woke him up incontinently, and, breaking to him the
news of Napoleon's death, reduced the easily-convinced
Soulier to tears. The ordering the colonel to call his
regiment to arms, to read to them the forged orders, and
to place it under the command of the soi-disant General
Lamotte, the promising him at the same time promotion
to a brigade and presenting him with an order on the
treasury for ^4,000, were the next steps. Cen est que
le premier pas qui coute. Malet thereupon marches away
at the head of twelve hundred men of the tenth cohort
of the National Guard down the Rue St. Antoine to
the prison of Laforce.

This he has now no difficulty in getting opened to
him, nor in liberating Generals Guidal and Lahorie, political
prisoners, upon whose necks he falls, confiding to them

200 An Imperial Victim

the roles they are to play. With an armed force they
are sent to arrest the Ministers of War and of Police,
and the Prefect of Police.

The latter, Pasquier, gentle and inoffensive, working
betimes in his office, allowed himself to be put into a
cab with his head subordinate and driven off to Laforce.
As for his chief, Savory, Due de Rovigo, Minister of
Police, let him tell his own tale.

While the Grand Armee was preparing to retreat, and
France was apparently quiet, it was his duty to write
a daily report to the Emperor. This he was in the
habit of sending off in the mornings, rising early. On
October 23 he had written all night, and had gone
to bed, and so was asleep when a noise in the next
room aroused him. The door was broken open by
an armed soldier, and Rovigo sprang out of bed in his
shirt to see what was the matter. The next room was
full of troops, there was a great noise, and some one
shouted—" Call the general ! "

Lahorie appeared. Now he had been chief of the
staff of Moreau in the army of the Rhine during the
revolutionary wars, and was a great friend of Rovigo's.

" The Emperor has been shot in front of Moscow
on October 8 ! " he cries.

<c But I had a letter from him yesterday of that
date ! " remonstrates the astonished Minister of Police,
and attempts to undeceive the soldiers.

But General Guidal rushes forward and points his
sword at Rovigo's breast. A sergeant throws himself
between them ; Lahorie, in spite of Rovigo's efforts,
stabs the sergeant, whose family Rovigo subsequently
cared for.

Seeing that there was no help for it, the latter
prepared to allow himself to be removed to Laforce by
Lahorie. To gain time, however, he proceeded to dress

The Rumbling of the Storm 201

as slowly as possible. On his way to prison he opened
the cab door as they were passing the Tour de 1'Horloge,
and tried to escape. But his captors ran after him,
crying : " Stop him ! Stop him ! " and stopped he was.
But the delay and the resistance of Rovigo had caused
a hitch in the carrying out of Lahorie and Guidal's
second step, the arrest of Feltre, Minister of War.

Meanwhile the egregious Colonel Soulier had been
complacently carrying out the conspirators' behest, which
was to go to the Hotel de Ville and to take possession
of it for the sittings of the Provisional Government,
which Malet was to form. The Prefect of Paris, Comte
Frochot, was on his way into the city. In the Rue
Faubourg St. Antoine he was met by a clerk bearing
the laconic note : " Come quickly. Fuit Impcrator"
When he reached the Hotel de Ville Soulier showed
him the forged orders, and he had the rooms prepared.

The intrepid Malet had reserved for himself the
most difficult feat of all. It was to secure the Head-
quarter Staff, which meant the military command of
Paris. Ordering all the city gates to be closed, and
occupying with troops the Bank and the Treasury, with
half a company of men he marched to the Place Vendome,
and forced his way into the room where General Hullin
was in bed. Malet told him the news and that his
orders were to arrest him. Hullin seemed inclined
to believe him when the voice of Madame Hullin in bed
in the alcove suggested that Malet should show his
papers.

" Yes ! where are your orders ? " cried Hullin.

u Here ! " replied Malet, firing his pistol and
breaking Hullin's jaw.

Then he rushed downstairs to the entresol of a house
opposite, the Headquarter Staff office, where he found
Colonel Doucet, the Adjutant-General, Colonel Laborde,

202 An Imperial Victim

and a police-officer. This latter, in an evil hour for
Malet, recognized him. Asking him what he was doing
out of his madhouse, he turned to Doucet and told him
to arrest Malet.

But Malet was equal to the occasion. Backing
against the chimney-piece, he put his hand in his pocket to
pull out his pistol and blow out Doucet's brains. But
the colonel saw Malet's movement reflected in the mirror
and threw himself upon him and prevented his firing.
At the same moment Laborde seized his hands, shouting :
« To arms ! "

The sentry rushed in. Malet was thrown down,
gagged, and dragged ,to the balcony and exhibited to his
troops of the i oth cohort as an impostor.

The next thing was to stamp out the plot in action
elsewhere. At the Ministry of Police Lahorie was found
installed, busy sending out official circulars in the intervals
of trying on a new official coat ! He was clapped under
arrest. At the Hotel de Ville the poor deluded Prefect
of the Seine was discovered hastily arranging rooms for
the sitting of the Provisional Government, and was abruptly
stopped in the process. Meanwhile Feltre, the War
Minister, who, but for Rovigo's plucky procrastinations,
would have shared his fate, now thoroughly alarmed,
sent the Garde a cheval galloping off to St. Cloud.

Rovigo and Pasquier were released ; Malet and his
coadjutors took their places in Laforce. By noon all
was calm again, Paris as usual, and the Hotel de Ville
in its normal condition.

Marie Louise had shown calmness and courage.
Queen Hortense " went off to St. Cloud yesterday. I
wanted to kiss that poor little King of Rome, whom
I found very well. The Empress was very well, and
would have it that it c was nothing but an affair of
Hussars/ Happily she had not been alarmed for

The Rumbling of the Storm 203

her son. She told me she would come and spend the
day with me at S. Leu to-morrow."

The Duchesse d'Abrantes writes that the Empress
was c< not alarmed, but went cantering again about the
woods round St. Cloud, though there might have been
other conspirators lurking there." Then, as if loath
to say anything to the Empress's credit, the Duchesse
adds : " But it was not courage ; it was, in fact, not
bothering about the affair (she never did understand) ;
and a trait in her character/*

Doubtless such a plot was almost inconceivable to the
daughter of a father so immutably fixed on his throne as
his most sacred Majesty Franz II. *' She haughtily
asked Cambaceies, the Arch-Chancellor, "says the Duchesse
d'Abrantes, <c what could have happened to her.'* But
Cambaceres had condemned a king to death and had
twice seen Franz II. fly before the French. He answered
with unusual sharpness : " Ma foi ! madame. Your
Majesty is very happy to be able to look at things
so philosophically, for she no doubt knows that it was
General Malet's plan to send the King of Rome to public
charity — that is to say, to the Foundlings — and as for
Your Majesty, her fate was to be decided later.'

" Marie Louise was never told, but it was settled,
and it would not have been agreeable to the pride of a
daughter of the Caesars."

Madame d'Abrantes, in her malice — she was smarting
under the disgrace and non-employment of her husband
— may have been exaggerating ; but Malet's official
documents showed that he considered the Empress a
valuable asset in his game and had arranged for her
person to be secured. For he had made out an order for
General Deriot, chief of the Headquarter staff, and com-
manding the depot of the National Guard, to hastily
occupy Sevres, Ville d'Avray and St. Cloud, and to

204 An Imperial Victim

protect Marie Louise, saying : " It is to the whole nation
that we have become responsible for the life of Marie
Louise ; as much for the nation's honour as for the
guarantee she gives us while she is in our power of the
conduct of the Emperor Francis towards France. As soon
as you have made your arrangements you will do well to
go off to St. Cloud to reassure that Princess on her
situation, while waiting for the Government to do it in
diplomatic form."

From Marie Louise's reply to her father's hasty
letter of inquiry, it is evident that she underrated
the gravity of the peril through which she had passed.
" The commotion which some madman has caused/' she
calls it. " I know too well the good character of the
nation, and its devotion to the Emperor, to have had
a single instant of fear."

But Paris had received an unpleasant shock. True,
as Queen Hortense writes, F affaire Malet " made us
laugh, which is not amusing for the persons laughed at."
The salons rang with merriment over the hoaxing of the
distinguished officials, and chaffed Rovigo and his fellow
victims on Malet's feat — " tour de force " — and said that
the wife of the Commandant of Paris in her night-dress
made the best show of any one. But, to those who looked
below the surface, Malet's straw showed the direction of
the wind. The ease and calmness with which the army
accepted the report of the death of the Emperor was an
unpleasant and alarming revelation. Perhaps, after all, the
Empire was built upon a volcano and not upon a rock.
Rovigo writes that he found the affair more tragic than
ridiculous. A few minutes more and Feltre would have
been arrested, and Malet master of the Treasury, the Post,
the Telegraph. An excitable nation, weary of war and
turmoil, would have learnt the news of the Russian
disasters which was safely locked in official breasts. Had

The Rumbling of the Storm 205

the Emperor suddenly returned, who can say but what
he himself might have been arrested? Another unpleasant
sidelight was the fact that no one had given a moment's
thought to the succession of the King of Rome if his
father was dead. As the judge at the trial said to poor
silly Colonel Soulier : <c Did it not strike you to shout,
* L'Empereur est mort, vive I'Empereur ! ' Malet's
attempt to blow up the Empire had failed, but he had
left upon it indelible scars. "Conspiracies generally end
in the ruin of the conspirators and of the reputations of
those against whom they have conspired."

When all was over Feltre made a great show, parading
Paris on horseback at the head of troops. Recrimina-
tions between the war and the police offices ensued, and
no mercy was shown to any actively complicated in the
affair. In five days fourteen were arrested, tried, and con-
demned. Twelve were shot, including Malet, Guidal,
and Lahorie.

But there was more behind the plot than Malet's well-
known republicanism. On his list of proposed members
for the Provisional Government were found distinguished
royalist names. His proclamation called to the Pope to
come to Paris and make the nation forget its woes.
What should the Pope do in Paris, except to crown a
king ? If so, then Malet was a Monk manque.

On the day of Malet's plot Napoleon was manoeuvring
round Malo-Yaroslawitz after the bloody day in which he
so nearly himself fell a prey to a band of Cossacks. On
November 6, the very day on which a courier came
through — the first for ten days — with the news of the
conspiracy, the weather changed. The blue sky changed
to steel. " Let the snow only come ! " had said KutusofF.
It came.

That year the Fete of Austerlitz was put off from
December 5 to 6, the latter being a Sunday, that it

206 An Imperial Victim

might be kept with greater enthusiasm. The Empress
had moved to the Tuileries for the winter ; there were
the usual receptions, Mass, Te Teum, opera, illuminations;
but while the salvoes for Austerlitz were awaking tranquil
Paris Napoleon was fleeing incognito from the wretched
vestiges of his Grande Armee and the horrors of the
retreat.

As yet no bad news had been officially announced in
Paris, but here and there private letters had filtered
through. The Government reports lied about the weather.
One, on November 1 1, in the Moniteur, merely mentioned
that the roads were very bad, that fifty thousand draught-
horses had perished, one hundred ammunition waggons
destroyed, but that the Emperor's health was good.
Meanwhile he had halted in his flight, and was hiding at
Dresden, throwing dust in his father-in-law's eyes, and
begging him for help of troops. Finally, he launched the
fateful Twenty-ninth Report. It burst on thunderstruck
Paris like a bombshell. It told of the loss of horses and
cavalry, of regiments reduced to four companies of one
hundred and fifty men each, of officers marching in the
ranks ; it described the passage of the Beresina. Paris
was convulsed.

On the heels of the report came Comte Anatole de
Montesquieu, son of the gouvernante, and Napoleon's
aide-de-camp, to prepare the way for the Emperor's
return. He brought with him eight Russian flags and
the news of the victory of the Beresina, ten thousand
prisoners, and assured Marie Louise of the Emperor's
good health ; but he had no recent ne\vs of him, and
did not know where he was.

Napoleon followed the very next day. At half-past
eleven on a December night he arrived quite alone with
Caulaincourt in a shabby post-chaise, and had some
difficulty in getting the palace gates opened to him,

The Rumbling of the Storm

207

Marie Louise, sad and ailing, was just getting into
bed when a noise was heard in the adjoining salon.
Two men in cloaks suddenly entered. The dame rouge
screamed, and, terrified, tried to bar the door. The
frightened Empress sprang out of bed. One of the men
threw back his heavy fur coat, and Marie Louise found
herself in her husband's arms.

CHAPTER XIII

THE LULL

u T AM sure you will share with me the joy which I
1 experienced in seeing him again after an absence
of more than seven months. The New Year could not
begin under happier auspices for me," and she adds that
when the Countess Colloredo sent her wishes for her
birthday (on December 12), she little guessed "how
soon they would be realized, and that I should be so happy
as to find myself back in Paris before the end of the year
with the Emperor." Her health is better, she mentions,
and " should be stronger now that there are no sorrows
to undermine it."

Napoleon took up the reins of government with a
firm hand. Two days after his return he held a great
reception of the Court, the officials, and the great bodies
of the State. In his reply to their congratulations, he
made excuses for himself, and only vouchsafed the remark :
c< My army has suffered losses." Then Their Majesties
and the Court adjourned to the opera of 'Jerusalem
Delivered.

But it was a dull season at Court, with few fetes. At
first Napoleon found his prestige tarnished, and was
almost afraid to show himself. Annoyed that such swift
retribution had been dealt to the Malet conspirators, he
told Cambac£res he wished he had been allowed to show
clemency.

208

The Lull 209

But all that the nation wanted was peace. Austria
wanted peace, too, and Metternich made tentative over-
tures to the foreign minister. The Kaiser in his New
Year letters to Napoleon and Marie Louise, wished also
for peace.

Marie Louise, sending a dejeuner service of Sevres
china painted with views of the French palaces, as a New
Year's gift to her father, likewise prayed for peace. " God
permit that your wishes may be granted and that we may
soon have peace. . . . God grant the Emperor does not
leave me again. The idea of his departure is such a
subject of terror to me, after all the anxiety I have gone
through last year. I share your wish of soon seeing a
long peace, for I dare not think of the moment when my
husband will return to the battle-fields."

Even the little King of Rome prayed for peace.
Napoleon, passing his door at bed-time, overheard his
little supplication, probably instigated by " Maman
'Quiou," that u God would pour into Papa's mind the
wish for peace, for France and for us all."

Napoleon smiled and passed on ; but did not heed.

His life during the next few months was a strange
medley of domestic bliss, and of the most strenuous
exertions to raise a fresh army, to plan for new campaigns.
Peace was the last thing he contemplated. But he might
have had it then.

Full of confidence and energy, never did he hunt and
shoot more frequently than at Christmas and the New
Year 1812. He had plays and fetes to order. Queen
Hortense was commanded to give an entertainment at
Neuilly. u One went to the ball," writes Chateaubriand,
" death in one's heart, mourning inwardly for one's friends
and relations."

The sick and wounded relics of the Grande Arm£e
began to dribble back into France, and tell their own tale

2io An Imperial Victim

of disaster. Comte Cznersichof, the Czar's spy, blazed
awhile in Parisian society, then suddenly crossed the
frontier, leaving behind him traces that the War Office
had been tampered with, and the French plans and army
statistics betrayed. The Due de Bassano, Minister of
Foreign Affairs, underrated the resources and the feelings
of Russia and of Austria ; Marie Louise, only too glad
that he should stand up for Austria's loyalty, made
much of Madame de Bassano, who was the Duchess of
Montebello's intimate friend.

In the midst of all this unrest and insecurity, the
little king was a ray of sunshine. One day the Comtesse
de Montesquiou took him to Bagatelle in the Bois de
Boulogne, Josephine's winter residence, when the latter
wept over him. Never was a more doting father than
Napoleon — a far tenderer parent, strange to say, than
his sweet and gentle mother. The Duchesse d'Abrantes
tells how one day she went to the little King's nursery
and found the Emperor there, c< playing with him in the
way he did with everything he loved — that is to say,
teasing him. The Emperor had been riding and had a
whip in his hand, which the child wanted. When his
little hand had succeeded at last in seizing it, he shrieked
with laughter and then kissed his father, as usual, as the
latter wished. The Emperor enjoyed the game ; his moist
eyes showed how happy he was.

" * Isn't my son beautiful, Madame Junot ? ' he said to
me. * Agree with me that he is beautiful ! '

" I could testify, without flattery, that he was beautiful
as an angel. How lovely he was, that child! When he
drove in the Tuileries gardens in that gilt chaise, shaped
like a shell and drawn by two young sheep which Francois
the groom had trained, and which had been given him by
his aunt the Queen of Naples ... he resembled the
cameos of Herculaneum. Oh ! how lovely he was, and

NAPOLEON AND MARIE LOUISE.

211

The Lull 213

how happy his father was ! It was the last smile of
Fortune, but it was very sweet."

And then Marie Louise, writes her chamberlain, seemed
to have for.her husband a <c real love. It did not displease
the Emperor when he noticed it. Perhaps there was
even a little affectation in the bourgeois conjugal affection
with which he treated the daughter of the Emperor of
Germany."

But 1813 dawned. It happened on a Friday, too —
evil omen for the Empire. Napoleon might have saved
that Empire had he read aright the signs of the times ;
but he fancied he was where he had been a year ago —
before Moscow !

The last day of the year saw a secret understanding
between Russia and Prussia. But Stein and the King
threw dust in Napoleon's eyes, even suggesting a marriage
between his family and Prussia, and Napoleon did not
gauge the importance of the Tugendbund and of the rising
national feeling — he, who had seen patriotism and re-
publicanism wane into despotism.

Nevertheless, he strengthened his ground where he
could, and on January 19 a most momentous hunting-
party took place in the forest of Fontainebleau. The
Empress was in the highest spirits, and it was not only
the pleasure of the chase and the horse exercise that she
loved that made her so happy. For the Hapsburgs have
always been devoted sons of the Church of Rome, and the
rupture of her husband with the Pope, and the latter 's
refusal to recognize her marriage, must have been a
source of trouble and dread to one so devoutly brought
up. J^ow, Marie Louise was happy in the hope that
reconciliation was near.

After hunting and lunching at Grosbois with the
Prince of Neufchatel, in the afternoon the Emperor had
the hounds called off, and, to the astonishment of their

J— 13

214 An Imperial Victim

suite. Napoleon and Marie Louise rode into the Cour du
Cheval Blanc at Fontainebleau. Orders went forth that
the night would be spent at the palace. Then ensued
bewilderment and bewailing of the suite, all in hunting
dress, for no one had any clothes or servants with them.
The Empress alone was in the Emperor's secret. Her
ladies spent a miserable night sitting up round the fires
in the half-warmed palace.

The Pope, the venerable prisoner of Fontainebleau,
came forward to meet the Emperor. It was no case
of kneeling, of humbly imploring the blessing of the
Holy Father. They embraced as might two monarchs —
the conqueror and the conquered.

Then began a series of tete-a-tete conferences which
lasted five days. At first Napoleon found the gentle old
man with the strong conscience hard to bend to his will.
In the end a compromise was reached, the famous
Concordat of Fontainebleau signed, by which the Pope
gave up temporal power, and the States of the Church to
Napoleon, who, on his part, forgave eleven of the
thirteen cardinals who had withstood him at his mar-
riage.

Marie Louise had been waiting and watching anxiously
the trend of affairs. When all was signed she came of
her own accord into the Pope's presence, and, kneeling
down, received at last his blessing. Once more she had
inward peace ; her conscience and her heart were one.
The text of the Concordat was at once sent to the
Kaiser.

In January the Czar entered Prussia, which began to
arm. But Metternich was still nursing Napoleon over the
alliance and the Kaiser wrote, harshly enough, that he
held himself bound by the most sacred ties to the Empire,
the welfare of which was his only aim. So, her conscience
at rest, her anxieties lulled, Marie Louise was happy at

The Lull 215

this time. <c My son is splendidly well," she writes to
Madame de Crenneville, " and he has never had a
moment's serious illness since his birth, and he has cut
all his teeth, three months ago ; but his tongue is still
tied and if he did not say ' Papa/ I should be afraid he is
dumb." Sequestered and isolated, never consulted by
her husband, never allowed to converse with any one who
could tell her about the real danger of affairs, her life
during this winter seems, after all, very natural to any
light-hearted young woman of twenty-one, happy with
her husband and child. Yet the Duchesse d'Abrantes
blames her.

" During the time that the clouds thickened more and
more and the storm drew daily nearer, during this time
what do you think she was doing, she who should have
trembled and been anxious lest the Austrian cannon
should come roaring upon the heights of Montmartre ?
Marie Louise, enfin> what was she doing ? . . . wool-
work . . . she played the piano . . . went to see her son,
as I have told you already, at a fixed hour . . . had him
brought to her in the same way, and the child, who knew
his nurse better than his mother, would hardly hold out
his little pink cheek that the latter might press it with
her lips . . . and yet, how the Emperor loved him !
Mon Dieu! . . . He loved him more than he ever loved
a woman, and God has punished him by that which he
preferred to the other. . . .

" Marie Louise was not beloved by any one of us,
and it was very natural. Perpetually withdrawn into her
most inner privacy, she only knew intimately Madame de
Montebello. Without doubt it was a good choice, but
nevertheless she should have had more laissez-aller at
the little soiree? which the Emperor had arranged for her
by only admitting to them forty or fifty women, who
took turns — that is the word — so that every evening there

216 An Imperial Victim

were about ten or fifteen. This included the dames du
palais and the ladies of the households of the Princesses
of the Imperial family. . . It was not amusing ; I have
gone through it, and, but for the ear of the Empress, who
made it her duty c to lend an ear ' to the good pleasure of
every one, one would have been imperially bored ... as
for Marie Louise she passed her time, as I have told you
. . . riding on horseback . . . not at all like Catherine I.,
to accompany the Emperor to the war, but to gallop
— I think the word is literally true — she galloped to
gallop. . . . Yet the whole of Europe was arming itself
against the man who was her husband before God and
before man . . . the half of her life . . . the father of
her child. And among this Europe whose billows were,
perhaps, going to overwhelm us, was her father, her
mother, her brothers ! Had she no word to say to
them ? Could she not throw herself before them, cry-
ing : ' This land of France, it is the patrimony of my
son ! it is my new country ... do not ravage it ! * ?

" But no ! She was dumb — always, always
dumb! . . ."

With pride and confidence Napoleon opened the
corps Ugislatif in January. He never dreamed that
Franz would abandon his daughter ; the people round
Marie Louise told her that the Emperor was invincible.
So she shared his illusions and was calm and happy. To
her father she wrote :

u The Emperor begs me to say many nice things to
you ; he is very fond of you ; not a day passes but
he tells me how much he likes you, especially since he saw
you at Dresden. . . . The Emperor begs me to assure
you of his friendship and to repeat it to you often. . . .
You will already have read in the papers of the patriotic
gifts of the French to their sovereign. The nation show
him the most complete devotion ; their affection moves

The Lull 217

one to tears. . . . The Emperor is very well indeed,
very cheerful, in spite of his heavy and serious responsi-
bilities. They say he has already in hand an enormous
number of troops. More start daily. It is really touch-
ing to see the patriotism, the military ardour of the
nation. . . . They are, they say, magnificent. The
Emperor is well satisfied, and flatters himself that he
will soon force his enemies to a lasting peace."

Early in March the Emperor and Empress went
together to inspect the Invalides. The veterans were
drawn up in the courtyard, where Napoleon chatted to
them and decorated them, and then went into the church,
with the Empress, where a Te Deum was sung. After-
wards they both visited the refectory, the bakery, the
hospital, where four centenarians who had fought at
Fontenoy were presented to them. By such kindly
acts did Napoleon endear himself and Marie Louise
to his army.

They next went for a fortnight's quiet to Trianon,
with a small Court and Queen Hortense and the Queen
of Westphalia, who had been driven from her kingdom.
Marie Louise, who fancied that she again had expectations
— " I do not care to dance any more " — went to bed
at nine. She liked being alone with the Emperor,
riding with him early to Mousseux and lunching
tete-a-tete at the Pavilion Bagatelle. He had had
a fall, and there was no more hunting. The palace at
the Trianon was quiet and dull, but she enjoyed that
time, reading many novels, but "the heroines were
not to be too galante" The frivolous little books
she sent back, and enjoyed those on history, music,
literature, and biography.

A secret treaty had been signed in February between
Prussia and Austria, but France was kept in the dark until
March 17. On April i began the War of Liberation.

2i8 An Imperial Victim

" Never," said Metternich to Comte Otto, " had the
Kaiser Franz found himself in such an anxious position.
He was quite ill."

But Napoleon would not see how matters stood ; he
set too great store by his marriage. But, while Franz and
Napoleon were still on very affectionate terms, Metter-
nich was twisting his facile master from an ally to a
mediator, and the rupture was approaching.

In order to accentuate the bonds between himself
and his father-in-law, Napoleon imagined one of those
great spectacular effects on which he set so much
store. Josephine had been crowned, with great pomp ;
but the Emperor of Austria's daughter had not been.
However, it was not too late. Marie Louise should
have a grand coronation, and not Marie Louise only,
but her son, thereby accentuating the usurpation of
the Pope's territories and capital. March 7 was fixed
for this grand double event. But thus far and no
further came Marie Louise ever to be crowned.

The Comte de Narbonne was sent to Vienna to
supplement Otto and to sound the Kaiser. He found
Franz friendly, and happy over Marie Louise, but he
would not commit himself to actively helping France.
Narbonne was also received by the arch-enemy, the
intriguing Empress ; but she only chatted with him
pleasantly, though very guardedly — delighted Napoleon
had returned from Russia in good health ; inquiring
after the King of Rome ; and, then, suddenly — her health
was as bad as ever — she felt faint, and had to retire.
Though cordial, Metternich openly told Narbonne that
Napoleon, if he wished for peace, must retire behind
his old frontiers and give up the Confederation of the
Rhine. In reality, it was only the fear of the liberal and
revolutionary ideas that were fermenting in Northern
Germany that caused Austria to hang back from joining

The Lull 219

her. Narbonne grasped the situation, and on his return
to Paris told Napoleon that Austria was " in " with the
enemy.

The moment had come for Napoleon once more to
place himself at the head of his army. But this time,
remembering Malet's conspiracy, he had an uneasy feeling
which prompted him to leave a fixed government behind
him in France. But who was to handle the reins ?
With not one of his very inferior brothers was Napoleon
on good terms. Joseph had proved himself a broken
reed in Spain ; with Louis, exiled in Styria, he had
quarrelled ; Lucien was a prisoner in England, and
Jerome had enough to do to maintain himself in his
Westphalian dominions. The only choice possible was
of Marie Louise, the mother of the heir, to be Regent.
True that she was very young, inexperienced, unsophisti-
cated in politics or affairs, and that he himself had kept
her religiously in the dark. Josephine, though she
would have been less respected, would have made a
better stateswoman. Yet Marie Louise was well suited
for a figure-head, backed up by a council Napoleon could
rely on, and his choice was not unpopular. The Due de
Rovigo says there was great satisfaction on Marie Louise
being appointed Regent. " We knew that she was
kind and sympathetic, and much beloved and esteemed.
Nothing but good had been heard in the reports of her
private life, and she had indeed won the esteem of the
nation, which was very well disposed towards her. It
came from the fact that on every occasion on which she
had to make an appearance she never showed anything
but what the most rigorous propriety demanded. By
evincing much consideration for the public she had won
its favour more surely than could have been done by
the employment of merely official methods. To help
her in the work which the Regency would entail the

220 An Imperial Victim

Emperor was going to attach to her service the man
in whose honesty he had the most confidence, his own
private secretary, the Baron de Meneval. He made this
sacrifice, and told MeneVal to write to him daily."

On March 30 a Privy Council was held, at which
the Empress, the Queen of Spain, and the Queen
Hortense were present. After the reading of the decree
appointing her Regent, Marie Louise swore to carry
out her duties " as good wife, good mother, and good
Frenchwoman, according to the laws and constitution
of the Empire, and to relinquish her powers as soon
as the Emperor desired it." Immediately after the
ceremony she despatched a courier to her father with
a letter, saying, <cYou can be sure how very flattered
I am by this new proof of the Emperor's confidence/*
The next day she was present at a Council of Ministers,
and showed intelligence, was attentive, and took it seri-
ously. When the police reports were about to be read
Napoleon checked the Arch-Chancellor Cambaceres, saying :
" One must not soil a young woman's mind by certain
details."

The order of routine of the Regency was signed
at St. Cloud the evening before Napoleon's departure.
It ran :

" The Empress will preside at the Senate, the Council
of State, the Council of Ministers, the Privy Council,
and the Extraordinary Councils, which will be convened
in cases in which the Emperor considers them necessary,
when urgent circumstances demand prompt measures,
and do not permit of our decision being awaited. She
will examine into the right of pardon, the commutation
of sentences, the granting of reprieves or delays in the
execution of arrests, and of sentences of condemnation.
She can sign decrees of nominations, which will be of
secondary order, or when urgent circumstances demand

The Lull 221

it. In affairs of secondary order are to be understood,
for the War Department, second lieutenancies, or cap-
taincies ; in the Navy Department, commissions of officers
ranking as lieutenants inclusive ; and in Judiciary and
Administrative Departments those of the functionaries
whom we do not nominate ourselves. Should the
Empress-Regent not deem it suitable to preside at the
Senate she will be replaced by our cousin the Arch-
Chancellor in virtue of the general delegation which we
make to him by this present decree, which delegation
will also confer upon him the right of presiding when
the Empress-Regent does not herself preside at the
Council of State, the Council of Ministers, and the Privy
Council."

It was further decided that the Regent should every
month, or oftener, if necessary, hold diplomatic recep-
tions, at which, however, foreign affairs were not to be
discussed, and she was to receive daily reports from the
Prince of Lodi, Chancellor of the kingdom of Italy.
Cambaceres, as First Councillor of the Regency, and the
Due de Rovigo, Minister of Police, were to send daily
reports to the Emperor, who furthermore arranged to
write to the Empress letters that were to be official,
tracing out what she had to do, and giving minutes
about it.

And who was this Cambaceres on whom the Empress-
Regent was to lean, and who was to be the real head
of the government ?

Of a poor but old legal family in Languedoc, Cam-
baceres was elected to the National Convention in 1792.
Though clever and eloquent enough to take the lead
in any party, he soon found it was safest to be a
favourite with all and odious to none, and became in-
vertebrate, supple, and cringing. One of the judges
of Louis XVI. (to whom his family were indebted for

222 An Imperial Victim

a pension !) he, at first, hedged as to the sentence no
less than three times ; then, finally, to appease the bloody
Robespierre party, he rushed to the tribune, and pro-
posed the execution of the death-sentence within twenty-
four hours, and when Louis asked for three days' grace
to prepare for death, moved the refusal.

By trimming assiduously with the most violent leaders
Cambaceres kept his head on his shoulders. With
Danton he established the infamous Revolutionary
Tribunal, which sent thousands of untried innocents to
the guillotine. Emerging unscathed from the downfall
of Robespierre, as Minister of Justice in 1799, he held
cautiously aloof from the rise of Bonaparte. But the
latter marked him as a subservient tool, and made him
Second Consul. A caricature of the moment, however,
shows what a creature Cambaceres was in Napoleon's
hands, for it represents him and Lebrun, the Third Consul,
kneeling beside Bonaparte, who plants an immense ex-
tinguisher over their heads. Cambaceres' share in the
Consulate seems to have been chiefly confined to the
giving of Lucullian banquets, Napoleon making an
exemption in his favour of his order against the posts
carrying foreign delicacies, as well as letters. Hence the
mot, c< Bonaparte gives hasty dinners, Cambaceres good
dinners, Lebrun no dinners at all."

To do Cambaceres justice, one must mention that he
strenuously opposed the murder of the Due d'Enghien,
eliciting the sarcastic remark of his master : " Methinks
you're become mightily sparing of shedding Bourbon
blood." Napoleon was wont to twit Cambaceres, pulling
gently his ear, about his regicidal past : " My poor
friend, I can do nothing for you. If ever the Bourbons
come back, they are sure to hang you ! "

Cambaceres was the first to propose conferring the1
title of Emperor upon Bonaparte. In return he was

The Lull 223

made Arch-Chancellor and Prince of Parma. " Your
title is about to be changed, but your functions and
my confidence remain the same. In the high dignity
with which you are about to be invested you will
manifest, as you have done in that of consul, the
wisdom of your counsels and the distinguished talents
which give you such an important share in all the good
I may have done."

The Duchesse d'Abrantes tells a story of the
Empress-Regent and her First Councillor, which, how-
ever, is probably but ben trovato. For Marie Louise,
as we have seen, spoke French from early childhood,
though, indeed, at the punctilious Court of Vienna she may
not have become acquainted with such colloquialisms as
those of which her Corsican made use either when
annoyed or in good spirits.

" Speaking one day of her father with the Emperor,
the latter, who was very angry with him, answered her
with some temper. Marie Louise was astonished at
being rebuffed by Napoleon, who had never spoken to
her but affectionately. She insisted, and wished to con-
tinue talking about her father to Napoleon. As the
latter was in an extremely irritable mood, he left the
room, slamming the door violently behind him and
exclaiming to the Empress : 'Your father — your father
is a ganache' [a stupid old blockhead].

"The epithet ganache is not imperial, it is neither
noble nor is it even very well-bred, I admit ; but it is
very significant, and expresses admirably — what ? Voyons^
ma foi ! how shall I find an equivalent ? . . . Well, it is
the exact opposite of a clever man. . . . The Empress,
whose grande-maitresse had not brought her up to know
what such words might mean, did not understand at all.
So she went repeating the word ganache lest she should
forget it.

224 An Imperial Victim

" And still she repeated ganache, till she found
Madame de Montebello.

" c Mon Dieu I my dear Duchesse,' she said directly
she saw her, ' explain to me what a word means which the
Emperor has just used to me in speaking of the Emperor
my father ; he called him a ganache \ '

" The Duchesse de Montebello was very embarrassed.
If the Empress had said to her, like any other woman,
* my father ' ; but this solemn expression, ' the Emperor,
my father/ checked the Duchesse in her reply, and the
explanation did not appear easy to her. However,
fearing lest some one else, more bold, should translate
the epithet coarsely, she replied to the Empress in her
soft voice : c Madame, it means a good, worthy man/

" e That is odd ! ' said Marie Louise, ' for the
Emperor looked very angry when he used that word/
And she soon thought no more about it, only the word
ganache had placed opposite to it in the tablets of her
memory the word 'worthy man.'

" Some time afterwards the Empress was appointed
Regent, with a Council presided over by the Prince
Arch-Chancellor, who was to be her mentor. Wishing
one day to say a civil thing to him as he sat majestically
beside her, c Monsieur the Arch-Chancellor,' she said to
him, smiling, with all the charm she could at that moment
conjure to her mouth, ' I am very glad that the Emperor
has given me such a sound judge as him whom I am to
consult. But I am particularly glad,' she added, reserving
all her fascination for a personal compliment upon the
choice of the President, c and I hope that, assisted by such
a worthy ganache as yourself, I shall do nothing which
might displease the Emperor/

" Who was astonished ? The Arch- Chancellor, I hope.
He looked at his august sovereign with a surprise mingled
with an almost interrogative expression, and which meant

The Lull 225

to say : * Oh ! $a ! Vous vous moquez de moi ? ' But
alas ! the Imperial mouth did not even think of such
a thing.

" However, I do not vouch for the truth of this
story. I only know that it was all over Paris at this
time."

Thus it was that Napoleon gave to Marie Louise,
as her right hand and adviser during his absence, the
very man who had taken the foremost and most virulent
part in the murder of her father's aunt.

Napoleon's sin found him out. His method of
working with supple and subservient tools failed him.
In due time, when firm and straightforward counsels at
the critical moment of the second Regency might have
prevented the debacle, he found in Cambaceres but a
feeble reed, which, when he leaned on it, pierced his
hand.

Considerate as ever to Marie Louise and mindful of the
chances of war, Napoleon, before his departure, arranged
her status should she be left a widow. The Senate
fixed her jointure at £160,000, secured partly on the State
and partly on Crown property. It included Compiegne
and its forest, the forests of Laigles, of Villars-Cotterets,
of Eu, of Aumale, the chateau of Eu, the forest of
Soignes, and £80,000 income from the State Treasury.
For her life in widowhood, Marie Louise was to enjoy
the Elysees and the Trianons.

Just before Napoleon's departure Schwarzenberg
appeared on the scene, come to spy out the land.
The awe of the Corsican ogre still lay over Austria,
and Schwarzenberg dare not admit that she would draw
the sword against him. Nor did he disturb Marie
Louise's serenity and trust in her father's alliance, or, at
least, neutrality.

But while he was aware through Narbonne how little

226 An Imperial Victim

reliance could be placed upon Austria, Napoleon made
up to Schwarzenberg, and pretended to believe that it
would adhere to the treaty of the year before, and wished
to imbue his wife and his ministers with a confidence he
did not feel himself.

He left St. Cloud for the army at ten o'clock in the
morning of April 15.

CHAPTER XIV

THE FIRST REGENCY

A FEW hours after Napoleon's departure, the Empress's
new secretary, her husband's devoted servant,
received this rather forlorn and pathetic little note.

" You are, of course, aware that the Emperor has
left. I like to think that you, also, are very grieved.
I beg of you if M. de Fain" (who had replaced Meneval
as private secretary with Napoleon) " has not gone, to
tell him that I wish very much that he should send me
news of the Emperor. I have not found a moment to
tell him so myself. I beg you will also send me a list
of the entrees, the Emperor having wished them to be
sent during to-day. I beg you to believe all the assur-
ances of the feelings with which I am your very attached

" LOUISE."

The next day Schwarzenberg, coming to pay his
adieux, found the Empress sad and preoccupied. The
Prince was an old friend of the Austrian Imperial family,
who had known her all her life, and, finding her quite
in the dark as to the critical state of affairs between
France and Austria, proceeded to open her eyes a little.
He was more candid with Marie Louise than he had
been with Napoleon, and she wept bitterly at the possibility
of a rupture between her husband and her father.

227

228 An Imperial Victim

To Bassano Schwarzenberg was almost brutally frank :
" Politics," he blurted, <c made this match, politics may
unmake it."

Two days later, at St. Cloud, the Regent held a
grand reception of the Court and diplomatic world.

Marie Louise, who now, of course, read the despatches,
was very anxious about the state of affairs. She had
a conversation with Count Floret — the same who had
dropped so opportune a hint when her marriage was
being thought of in Paris, and who had now taken over
the Austrian Embassy on the departure of Schwarzenberg.

" I am assured," she said to him, "that Austria wishes
to declare war on France."

Floret tried to look truthful when he begged her not
to be alarmed.

" But I hear it discussed daily. The Emperor is very
much concerned about it, not only on account of me,]
but also on account of the friendship he bears to my]
father, since he saw him at Dresden. You can imagine,!
therefore, how unhappy the situation makes me. I think!
that at Vienna they are mistaken as to my husband's!
real strength. In a little while his army will be eveiJ
larger. 1 know this because they show me the list ofl
the officers, and the muster-rolls of the troops. Thcl
French are showing an unparalleled energy. If my father!
declared war against France, incalculable misfortune might!
happen to him. Write to Vienna. My father will believe!
you more than he believes me."

Floret tried to reassure her, and she felt calmer, and!
talked to him of Napoleon's kindness to her, of his
domestic virtues — a model husband.

She wrote to her father of her fears. " The Emperoa
has said to me, ' The Prince I am most attached to is;
your father. I am sure that if he allows himself to be*
led by his wife, he will lose my friendship/ '

The First Regency 229

At the victory of Ltttzen, May 2, Marie Louise felt
" une grande joie," because she hoped it would steady
the feeling in the country, which she suspected of being
shaky.

" France," writes Rovigo, " soon recovers from a
great extremity. Before Liitzen all was given up for
lost ; after it people thought only of a glorious peace.
By Napoleon's orders, transmitted through the Regent,
Te Deums were sung everywhere. The Empress-Regent
heard one at Notre Dame, accompanied by her Court,
escorted by her guards, and welcomed by the public with
a delirious enthusiasm when she entered Notre Dame,
the cheers making the roof of the sacred edifice ring."

The Empress arrived in the coronation coach. Notre-
Dame had been decorated with chandeliers and tapestries,
and a throne was erected in the choir. Cardinal Maury,
whilom orator of the National Assembly, the rival of
Mirabeau, doubtless officially inspired, gave an adulatory
address in honour of a human being, the like of which
has not often been heard in a house of God.

" Madame, — The presence of your Imperial and Royal
Majesty in this sanctuary proclaims to your people the
new and brilliant victories with which Almighty God has
just crowned the ever-victorious arms of your august
spouse. If all the French are filled with joy to have
to-day to return thanks to God for so much glory, what
must be the happiness of a heart called upon to share the
throne ! Religion will be enhanced in its prayers by all
the worth which your prayers add to them, at the moment
which your piety has chosen for it to be the organ for
your thanksgiving to the King of kings." He went on
to allude to the approaching coronation to be performed
at the end of the war. " This same temple, where the
whole Empire has just raised, even to Heaven, the pious
transports of its gratitude, shall soon be reopened to
1—14

230 An Imperial Victim

celebrate in your honour another historical solemnity,
as dear to the sovereign as to his subjects. We shall
then there behold, in the midst of universal acclamations,
the august heroine of this national fete, fitly placed before
our altar beside the hero and the restorer of the throne
of Charlemagne. Happy to sanctify such a day, religion
will congratulate herself in thus proclaiming your glory,
resplendent of your happiness and of the public joy.
But we shall hasten to request Your Majesty, in the
name of this holy and necessary religion, that she will
always look upon the greatest of your benefits, the
publicity given to your religious principles and the
protection of your example."

When the speech was over, the Cardinal marched
before the Empress, who passed into the choir beneath
a canopy borne by canons, and who was preceded by
ushers, heralds, pages, aides-de-camp, masters of the
ceremonies, officers on duty, the holders of the decoration
of the Great Eagles, the grand master of the ceremonies,
the grand chamberlain, and other grand dignitaries, and
followed by her households, French and Italian, dames
d'honneur, chevaliers d'honneur, chaplains, and her grand
marshal. She knelt at the altar, and then, seating herself
on the throne, heard the Te Deum, returning to the
Tuileries in the same state as that in which she came.

Next day the Moniteur^ which was always inspired,
was all enthusiasm on her reception, adding, to please
the trend of public feeling, that the Emperor had called
a congress at Prague, in accordance with the wishes of
Austria, to arrange peace.

It was Marie Louise's first public appearance as Regent,
and a truly magnificent one. The revulsion of feeling
must have been great, and very cheering, for immediately
upon her return from the cathedral she wrote to her
father : <c I have come back quite touched from seeing

The First Regency 231

the affection with which the Emperor inspires the nation.
Never have the French so cheered his name. He is both
conqueror and peacemaker."

Napoleon, who had been in the thick of the fight,
wrote to announce his victory of Liltzen to the Kaiser,
adding : " I have news of the Empress, with whom I am
extremely satisfied. She is to-day my chief minister, and
acquits herself to my great satisfaction. I cannot let you
be ignorant of this, knowing how it will please your
paternal heart."

To Cambaceres, he wrote, praising his young recruits,
and adding : " Nothing can go better ! "

The fate of Europe lay in Austria's hand. Should
she continue the alliance or not ? Napoleon wrote from
Dresden after Liitzen begging the Kaiser to second him
in his wish for peace. Franz sent a congratulatory but
evasive reply : " What you tell me of the Empress gives
me much pleasure. In giving Your Majesty my daughter
I was certain of giving him an excellent wife, endowed
with every quality which could promote domestic happi-
ness. The development of talents which will render her
capable of governing the Empire is due, no doubt, to
the wise lessons and example of Your Majesty. I wish
most sincerely that my daughter may contribute con-
stantly to your happiness, M. mon frere, to which I
attach an essential part of mine." Not a word about
peace !

Napoleon wrote again, imploring Franz to consider
his honour, saying that he had decided to die at
the head of his French braves rather than to live to be
the scorn of the English. He begged that the fruit
of three years' friendship might not be destroyed, and
that Franz would not sacrifice the interests of his subjects,
the happiness of the generation, and " that of a part of
his family so sincerely devoted to him."

232 An Imperial Victim

But Napoleon did not grasp that Franz really disliked
him even more than his traditional enemy Prussia. The
latter was only a rebel, but Napoleon was a man of the
Revolution. So while Ltttzen and Bautzen was being
fought, the Kaiser, as Napoleon put it, got " behind the
Bohemian mountains." " Get me my alliance back," he
said to Metternich in his broad Viennese, " and meantime
I will get myself fit for the saddle ; but first of all get me
my alliance back."

So Metternich, more confident and happy than for a
long time, passed in wily fashion from ally to mediator on
the way to the final step of enemy. But the awe of
Napoleon's star still dazzled the Kaiser. To those who
thought Napoleon in a tight place he remarked : " I'm
not worried about him, he'll play them some of his old
tricks yet ! "

So there was trickery all round, and a deadlock.
Metternich suggested terms — the basis being the surrender
by Napoleon of all provinces taken since 1809. The latter
found Austria too strong to bluff, and Russia declined to
negotiate. There was nothing for it but to face Europe
alone, and recommence hostilities.

Bautzen was fought and won. Anatole de Montesquiou
was sent to the Regent with the news, on which she wrote
to her father : " I think I understand that this victory is
of great importance. I cannot tell you how happy this
good news makes me. I was never so well."

Meanwhile, in the Empress's private circle things were
not going smoothly. When Anatole de Montesquiou,
the Emperor's aide-de-camp, brought news of the victory
of Bautzen to the Empress, it was night-time, and the
Comtesse woke her up to hear it. Marie Louise was ill
in consequence, and on Sunday morning the guests
arriving for the usual reception at St. Cloud after Mass,
were turned back by Caffarelli. Napoleon, when he heard

The First Regency 233

of this, was very annoyed. " The King of Rome," he
wrote, " would have received gaily," and he blamed
Madame de Montesquiou and Caffarelli. Again he was
annoyed because the little King could not attend the Te
Deum for the victory with his mother, because there were
no horses ordered for his carnage.

At this moment, less anxious, she was popular. Her
government was gentle, writes Rovigo. " She often
signed pardons, unostentatiously, but the fact was known
to those who were near her and loved her. She never
sought to fascinate, but was always natural and simple.
She received all who wished to come to her, and would
never have schemed to attract those who did not. She
was still the object of deep respect and admiration."
Rovigo mentions that he, as Police Minister, never en-
hanced her popularity by artificial means.

Madame le Duchesse d'Abrantes throws, as usual, a less
kindly light on the Empress-Regent.

" During this time Paris was awaiting news with
extreme impatience. Often I wrote to the Arch-Chancellor
to ask for any, for with Marie Louise it was not as with
kind Josephine, who met our anxiety half-way. The
former was all gourmee, stiff, and all etiquette, only per-
mitting Madame de Montebello to approach her. I have
already said that she was an excellent choice, but perhaps
Madame la Duchesse de Montebello should have per-
suaded the Empress to be more c popular ' amongst us, if
I may so put it ; in the days of misfortune she would
perhaps have found sympathy which she did not awake.
How might she have done it ? To dejeuner, nod her head
to her son, ride on horseback, do wool-work, play tant
bien que mal the piano, gossip right royally over our
private concerns : that was how the Empress occupied
herself during the Dresden business, when she had just
learnt that her husband and her father had broken all the

234 An Imperial Victim

bonds which united them. . . . How little she was
beloved ! — she who would have been adored, had she
willed it."

At Bautzen Napoleon " had most stupidly lost,"
as he said, " one of the three men he loved and esteemed
most," Marshal Duroc, comptroller of the palaces. The
Marshal's last words were that his master was insatiable,
and had not learnt his lesson.

Yet on June 4 Napoleon signed an armistice. All
Europe was delighted. Both Paris and Vienna believed
peace in sight, and Marie Louise wrote hastily to her
father :

" I can indeed tell you that never has any news
rejoiced me so. It has soothed my cares and fears. I
see in it another proof of your kindness. I am quite
touched by it, and I cannot be sufficiently grateful to
you. I am sure that the Emperor will receive this proof
of your friendship with delight. The days I spent with
you at Dresden and at Prague are full of sweet memories.
It is this same month last year that I had the happiness
of seeing you and assuring you verbally of my daughterly
affection. I kiss your hands, dear father, and thank you
for having sent me a courier every fortnight."

Poor Marie Louise ! Napoleon had not granted the
truce to prepare for peace, but for war. To the Viceroy
of Italy he had written : "I shall grant a truce because
Austria is arming, and in order to gain time to bring up
the army of Italy to Laibach and threaten Vienna."
Duroc's dying words were true !

Count Bubna was sent to Napoleon at Prague with
conditions of peace too hard for him to accept, involving
as they did the loss of the German Protectorate, the Duchy
of Warsaw, the Illyrian provinces.

" Do you wish to dishonour me ? " cried the Emperor
to Bubna. " Honour before everything — then the wife,

The First Regency 235

then the child, then the dynasty ! " He vowed the
world would be upset, and great misfortunes ensue.
<c The best of women will be the victim of them. France
will be handed over to the Jacobins. What will become
of the child in whose veins flows Austrian blood ? I
esteem my father-in-law, and I know him. He arranged
this marriage with me in the most noble manner. I am
heartily grateful to him. But, if the Emperor of Austria
wishes to change his policy, he had better not have made
this match, which, at this moment, I must be sorry for.
I told you in Paris, and I told Schwarzenberg, that
nothing is so repugnant to me as to make war on Austria-
I do not wish to make Austrian blood hated in France.
The long wars between Austria and France have borne
a crop of resentment. You know that the Empress,
as an Austrian Princess, was not liked when she arrived
in France. She is beginning to win public opinion by
her amiability, and you wish to force me to issue mani-
festoes which will irritate the nation. Indeed, I am not
to be accused of having too loving a heart ; but, if I love
anything in the world, it is my wife. Whatever may
be the result of this war, it will affect the future of the
King of Rome. On that account war with Austria is
hateful to me. . . . You call yourself my ally, and you
wish to remove your contingent." He added that if his
conquests were taken from him, " blood must flow."

At Whitsuntide Marie Louise, now in better health
and spirits, had a little two days' outing in the country.
By Napoleon's wish, she went to stay at Mortefontaine
with the amiable Queen of Spain, whose husband's
subjects, with the assistance of Wellington, were rapidly
driving him out of his kingdom. Napoleon had written
to Comtesse de Montesquieu, on June 7 : " I see with
pleasure that my son grows, and gives fair promise." He
wished the Empress to have some amusement, as was

236 An Imperial Victim

natural for her age, and wrote anxiously about her health.
But Marie Louise took her part as Regent seriously and
sadly. However, there were theatricals at Mortefontaine,
by the Vaudeville actors, and the sisters-in-law made an
excursion to Ennerville.

Though the abortive congress began to sit at Prague,
on June 27, by a secret treaty, Austria joined the Allies.
But in Paris and Vienna hopes of peace ran high. Marie
Louise was living in a fool's paradise. tc I can give you
again better news of my husband," she wrote to her
father. c( All my prayers are for the prompt conclusion
of peace. The armistice has already done my health good.
You know how much the anxiety affected it."

Napoleon returned to Dresden, making a great show,
the Comedie fran$aise company acting, dinners, levees —
bluffing in fact. " It is good people think we amuse
ourselves here ! "

Then came that momentous interview with Metternich,
which lasted six hours, till dusk fell, and the servants,
fearful of disturbing them, not bringing in candles, it ended
in the dark. Metternich came wishful for peace. He
found the Emperor in one of his most irritable moods.
Napoleon bewailed his folly in marrying an Austrian
Archduchess ; the Emperor Francis wished him back
behind the Alps, the Rhine, the Pyrenees, which meant
a shrunken throne for his daughter and grandson. Metter-
nich, imperturbable, agreed.

" So the Emperor Francis wishes to dethrone his
daughter ?"

u The Emperor of Austria/' replied the minister, u is
first of all a sovereign, and, whatever fate may have in
store for his daughter, his people's interests will take the
first place in his plans."

Metternich's sang froid upset Napoleon.

" And so it is my father-in-law who harbours such

The First Regency 237

a project ? It is he who sends you ? In what sort
of a position does he think to place me with the French ?
Does he think a mutilated throne can be a safe seat in
France for his daughter and grandson?'' Then he blurted
out : " And how much did England give you to play this
part against me ? "

Metternich was silent.

" You will not declare war against me ? "

" You are lost, sire," were Metternich's last words.

Napoleon had dropped his hat as he tramped irritably
to and fro. Metternich would not pick it up. Napoleon
himself did so, and left the room. Outside, Bausset, the
prtfet of the palace, was in waiting, and thought he looked
sad and heated. He grasped Bausset's hand.

Directly Metternich had left the Marcolini palace he
instantly sent off a courier to ask Schwarzenberg how
long a prolongation of the armistice he needed to rein-
force the army.

The armistice was to continue till midnight, August
17 ; not an hour longer, said Metternich. Napoleon
simply did not believe him. He shilly-shallied, the
congress dragged on. Then Napoleon bluffed again.

This time he again made use of Marie Louise.
Suddenly ordered her to join him at Mainz for a few days.
To do him justice, the move was not entirely political.
There is no doubt that at that time they were sincerely
attached to each other, and they had been separated for
some months. But Napoleon's ulterior motive was to
accentuate his family relationship with Austria, and also
to treat his father-in-law to the spectacle of a little domestic
idyll; for, personally, Franz was tender-hearted, and nothing
if not a devoted husband, four times over.

It was so in keeping with Marie Louise's loyal feel-
ings of friendship that, in the hurry of starting for Mainz,
she should find a moment to write to her friend Victoire,

238 An Imperial Victim

to consent to stand godmother to the latter's second son.
But the letter is more stiff than any of that long corre-
spondence which covers so many years. It begins : " A
Madame la Comtesse de Crenneville," instead of to " Chere
amie." It ends " Votre affectionnee amie" instead of "Votre
attachee amie." Probably Marie Louise, in her new
position as Regent thought that it behoved her to be
more punctilious even with her old childhood's friend.

With his wonderful power of attention to details,
Napoleon had arranged every item of her journey. Marie
Louise only received her orders on the 2Oth ; she was
ready to start on the night of the 22nd. " I am sure
you will share my joy," she wrote to Madame de Lugay.
Once again hurrying across Europe to meet Napoleon,
travelling night and day, Marie Louise, taking with her
the Duchesse, Beauharnais, two other ladies, three gentle-
men, and Men£val, reached Mainz at four in the evening
on July 26, in pouring weather. " I hasten, madame,"
she writes to her dame d'atoun^ to give you news of my
arrival. ... I have not seen the Emperor yet. We
expect him every moment, and no one awaits him with
more impatience than I do. I believe he will come to-
night, or at latest to-morrow morning. I beg you to tell
one of my first women to send me the rest of the cervelas
in chocolate which have been left behind in a cupboard at
St. Cloud. I beg you to send the book if it appears
interesting. I am very tired with the journey, and with
the roads, which we found so bad that I only reached
Mainz at five in the evening with a headache and a bad
cold. The weather has been terrible ; it has never ceased
raining. I must finish my letter because I cannot keep
my eyes open ; for four days I have not slept ten hours in
all."

Only at midnight did the Emperor arrive, to find
her sound asleep. She thought him looking well and

The First Regency 239

bronzed and in the most confident spirits. They put up
at the Schloss of the Teutonic Order, on the bank of the
Rhine, and were joined by the Grand-duke and Duchess
of Baden, the pleasant Prince Primate of Nassau. Next
day Napoleon reviewed the troops passing through to join
the army, and gave a banquet. To this were invited the
governor of Berg, Count Beugnot, and Jean Bon St.
Andre, prefet of Mainz, an old Republican, a colleague
of Robespierre's on the National Convention. He came
to the dinner dressed half in uniform and half in black
clothes and a cravat. He found Napoleon monosyllabic ;
the Empress timidly putting in a few words. After
dinner the Prince of Nassau offered the Emperor a boat
and he went out for a row on the Rhine. With him went
the governor and the prefet^ some of the suite, and his
mameluke Rustom. Napoleon, his spy-glass to his eye,
leant over the gunwale of the boat, looking at the view or
Biebrich opposite, and the vine-clad hills of the Rhine.

In a whisper behind his back the old republican
remarked to Count Beugnot that the fate of the world
hung on a kick !

" For God's sake, be silent ! " whispered back the
governor. " Do not be alarmed," replied Jean Bon,
c< people of resolution are rare ! "

When they were safely back on land again, the
governor told the prefet what a fright he had given him,
but Jean Bon prophesied that floods of bloody tears would
flow because that day had not been Napoleon's last.

Yet never had Napoleon seemed more formidable,
and all over the Empire was peace. No longer dreading
any rupture between father and husband, believing in the
Congress, Marie Louise enjoyed herself amazingly in the
sunny Rhineland in lovely July weather. Daily she drove
about the neighbourhood and saw the sights. Remember-
ing that Napoleon's fete-day was drawing near, she wrote

240 An Imperial Victim

to order Isabey to paint a miniature of herself and the
King of Rome on a snuff-box that she might send it
as a present to the Emperor. He was u to arrange the
group as he liked, my son on my knees."

But the happy little holiday only lasted six days.
Napoleon kissed her before all the Court as he put her
into her carriage, and Marie Louise wept at the parting.

The Emperor returned to Dresden. For the Empress
he had arranged, in a yacht belonging to the Prince of
Nassau, a pleasant trip down the Rhine. The scenery
delighted her. The first evening she wrote to the
Emperor that she had landed and visited a mediaeval
castle, half ruined, the stammschloss of the Metternichs.
The next day she was welcomed at Coblenz by bells and
guns and trumpets, her impressionable nature quite
touched. There she left the yacht and went by post-
chaise to Aix la Chapelle, where she visited the cathedral.
Thence by Liege, Namur, Soissons — with all its memories
of the coming as a bride to Compiegne — and there her
boy, " lively, laughing, chattering," was awaiting her as
she gets out of the carriage, eager to show her his little
gilt chair drawn by the tame white sheep. His mother
brought him back toys from Mainz — an elephant, a box of
eight comic figures, four games, animated toys, ducks,
a hobby-horse, a doll in a bath. She waited and watched
him fish for the ducks. She had had his rocking-horse
done up for ^13. To Napoleon she sent a picture of
him by Isabey, praying, with a toy on the ground.

The sands of the armistice were running out. The
Allies now offered Austria sinews of war to join them,
her finances being, as usual, in a bad way. Napoleon
did not realize Metternich's underhand working, and
would not make up his mind either to agree to or refuse
the conditions offered.

Once more back again alone at St. Cloud, Marie

The First Regency 241

Louise became depressed. Napoleon seemed obdurate,
and the vision of peace was fleeting fast. " I am in a
painful uncertainty as to the result of the negotiations/'
she wrote to her father. " God grant there may not be
war. This thought frightens me horribly. If war does
break out may you not be mixed up with it. I found
the Emperor very well at Mainz ; he has grown much
fatter. Unfortunately, I was only with him six days. I
found my son very well and very gay. He talks already,
and he is very sweet. I shall not stay with him very
long. The Emperor sends me to Cherbourg to open the
dock/'

The crisis was fast approaching. The congress met
only for form ; for everything had to be referred to
Napoleon by his delegates, Caulaincourt and Narbonne.
" I send you with more powers than power," the Foreign
Minister had told them when they went to it. c< You
will have your hands tied, but your legs and mouth free
to walk and dine." Napoleon declined any concessions,
and tried to divide the Allies. He would not believe that
the armistice would not be prolonged. Yet the Kaiser
himself dictated to Metternich : " I expect ' Yes ' or 'No'
during the day of the loth. I have decided to declare
war during the day of the iith, as will also Prussia and
Russia, when the congress is dissolved . . . the fate of
war to decide the future."

Caulaincourt was sent with the ultimatum. Warsaw,
Northern Germany, the Hanseatic Free Towns, the Illy-
rian provinces, the Protectorate of the Rhine Confedera-
tion— all were to go. Napoleon had twenty-four hours
to make up his mind. He refused to believe that the
date was irrevocable, and sent up arrogant counter pro-
posals on the night of the loth.

On August 10 the Fete-Napoleon was kept by the
French army all over Germany with much enthusiasm.

242 An Imperial Victim

While the French army was feasting, the Russian army
invaded Bohemia. Caulaincourt wrote imploringly to his
master. Napoleon, touched by his faithful friend's appeal,
gave way. It was five days too late. Austria said she must
now consult her allies. On the 1 5th she declared war.

Years later, at St. Helena, Napoleon thus wrote
bitterly : " I do not hesitate to say that my assassination
at Schonbrttnn would have been less fatal to France than
has been my union with Austria. ... I loved Marie
Louise well ; she did not mix herself up with intrigues.
My marriage with her ruined me, because it is not in
my nature to be able to believe in the treachery of my
relatives, and the day of my marriage with Marie Louise
her father became, according to my bourgeois customs,
a member of my family. It has been necessary for me
to have more than evidence to believe that the Emperor
of Austria would turn his arms against me, and would
dethrone, in the interests of the Bourbons, his daughter
and grandson. Without this confidence I should not
have gone to Moscow ; I should have signed peace at
Chatillon. . . . The abyss covered with flowers ruined

me."

On the same day that the Czar crossed the frontiers
of the Empire the Empress-Regent celebrated the Fete-
Napoleon with great pomp at the Tuileries, receiving all
the dignitaries of the State, including the Princes of the
Rhine Confederation. There was a Te Deum in the palace
chapel, an opera, Dido, in the palace theatre, and then
she appeared on the balcony of the Salle des Marechaux
amid much cheering. In ignorance of what was happen-
ing on the banks of the Elbe, Marie Louise, on the
banks of the Seine, listened to the concert and watched
the fireworks in the Place de la Concorde, returning to
St. Cloud to sleep. In common with all Paris, she
imagined peace at hand.

The First Regency 243

Daily she and Napoleon corresponded, couriers doing
the journey in less than a hundred hours. But Napoleon's
orders were that she was to be kept in the dark about
her father's " infamous treachery " till she returned from
Cherbourg. The Empress was ill with a sore throat before
leaving for Cherbourg, and sent an affectionate but rather
stiff letter, dictated, to both the Comtesses Colloredo and
Crenneville, with presents and a portrait of herself, that
she might " be always in the midst of a family which has
so many claims on my affection."

The departure of the Empress was postponed on
account of Napoleon's fete on August 15. This was
not altogether a success. Napoleon was annoyed because,
after the reception and the Te Deum and Mass, she was
late in arriving at the opera for Didon and would not
leave till it was finished ; therefore " the people waited
two hours for the fireworks " and " showed impatience at
not seeing her appear." The Comtesse de Montesquiou
and the first chamberlain were blamed for this. There
was quarrelling between the former and the Duchesse,
who put the blame on the Empress, and made her
unpopular. The truth of the matter was that Marie
Louise was not very well, suffering from a cough and
rheumatism, and had grown very thin. She was languid,
inert, and had certainly lost ground in public favour.
Napoleon and this new war were also unpopular.

The Duke de Rovigo, head of the police, was very
uneasy before the visit to Cherbourg. He tried to induce
General Caffarelli, the chamberlain, to make her popular,
to suggest her speaking to the right people, and to avoid
" these absurd unpunctualities." The country she was
about to visit had bad times last year : there were riots
over the famine, mills were pillaged, the maires assaulted,
eight people were hanged — four men and four women.
The aristocracy had paid visits to the prisoners. Rumours

244 An Imperial Victim

were spread that the Emperor had been wounded after
Lutzen and marshals killed. All the west was royalist.
There had been a plot in the previous autumn among
the guard of honour. The Emperor had ordered the
people of Brittany to be stirred. But civil war was
simmering, and what if they captured the Empress ?
So she was to go no farther than Normandy. Nothing
was to be allowed that would show that public opinion
was veering against the Empire. Madame Dufresnay,
a protegee of the chamberlain De Segur, was sent ahead
" to make a good press " for her and to arrange about
charities and presents. But Marie Louise must play
her part.

" Doubtless," writes Rovigo, " the Empress, esteemed
by all the nation, will be even more interesting to it in
the position in which she finds herself. Doubtless she
daily wins fresh hearts, and there is no fear that the
approaching circumstances may in any way injure the
homage she has won. It is necessary, no doubt, to ward
off from Her Majesty's mind any idea that would tend to
give her a contrary opinion ; it would be even dangerous
if such were allowed to take possession of her. . . . The
Empress must always wear that gracious smile on her
lips which enhances her welcome in such a forthcoming
manner to persons she deigns to converse with. Get
hold/' says Rovigo to his old comrade Caffarelli, " of
many pleasing anecdotes about the people who will have
the honour of being presented, that she may say a kind
word which will be retailed by a hundred different
mouths and reported in the same way in as many
letters. . . . Try that the Empress is punctual. . . .
' Punctuality is the politeness of kings,' said a celebrated
courtier, and it is true. So, for God's sake, mon ami,
none of these everlasting waitings, which chill down
enthusiasm and give an opening to evil tongues. . . .

"By Bosio.

MARIE LOUISE, EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH.

245

The First Regency 247

This trip may result in great good or in great luke-
warmness, which, under the circumstances, would be a
disaster. The Empress may take courage. Already she
is reverenced, and will receive a hundredfold in return
for the slightest kind welcomes, which she knows how
to bestow if left to herself. It seems to me that if I had
the honour of being attached to her I should be bold
enough to tell her so, certain that one cannot displease
her in telling her of all the desires of this nation to love
her and to be beloved ; but, for God's sake, mon ami, no
chilliness — you understand. We have often told each
other that there were no brains in that head, no warmth
in that heart, but our sovereign has enough of both to
carry out our wishes."

Marie Louise started a few days late on this
momentous journey, because the Duchesse did not like
one of the ladies who was in waiting. She took
Mesdames de Montebello and Lucay with her and
only one dame du Calais out of thirty-eight. Where
the three roads from Paris, Rouen, and Bordeaux to
Cherbourg met, there was a triumphal arch. At Caen
a fine Norman horse was presented to her, and she
witnessed a fete-ckimpetre, with libations of cider and
milk, and distributed gifts of watches from Leroy's ;
bells were rung, guns fired. On her fete-day, August 25,
she reached Cherbourg, sad, with a bad cold on her
chest, suffocated with the dust of the journey and weary
with the bad roads since Carentan. On her arrival she
heard that war had begun.

How sad a fete-day ! What a contrast to the three
preceding ones which Napoleon had kept with so much
affection and merry-making !

The next day she began the business for which she
had been sent, by visiting the new harbour, now to be
called the Port Napoleon. The Emperor was using the

"'

248 An Imperial Victim

Regent to increase his personal popularity, to impress
upon the nation the works of public utility he had done
for it, and also to divert public attention from an un-
popular war.

Fifty young girls in white, headed by the daughter of
the prefet, threw white roses at the Regent's feet, offering
her baskets of locally-made lace, and singing verses in her
honour. Escorted by the Minister of Marine, Marie
Louise walked into the dock, still dry, to inspect the
works. Curiously enough, as at her previous visits,
English frigates were cruising in the offing, only about
twelve miles off.

Somewhat bored, as always, with these official pro-
ceedings, the Empress drove off in the afternoon to
Chateau Martin in the country. The owners were absent,
but the gardener, unaware of his visitor's identity, offered
a meal of milk and fruit, and received a rouleau of
money.

In the evening the Empress had the prefet to dine,
and amused him at the whist-table by a story of how she
one day tried to make an omelette ; that the Emperor
suddenly appeared and said that he could make a better ;
but, donning an apron, failed ignominiously.

Because of a new moon and an unusually high tide,
the 27th had been fixed for the filling of the dock.
Holes had been made in the dykes which protected it,
and when the Empress came at six in the evening to see
the sea flow in, some 40,000 people crowded the shore
and the roofs of the town, and guns were fired round
the dock. The Bishop of Coutances addressed the
Regent, and then blessed the new harbour.

In the afternoon, the Empress drove out to see the
Chateau de Querqueville, which Napoleon meditated
buying. She then went to dinner at her usual hour of
eight. The dyke which kept back the high tide was

The First Regency 249

calculated to yield at nine o'clock, and she missed the
sight. " The fine moment when the water rushed in
with a noise came when every one was dining, and no
one saw it, and, as one misfortune always follows another,
I missed the fireworks also ! "

Yet, in spite of these u everlasting unpunctualities,"
Marie Louise " pleases everybody much ; she has nothing
but agreeable things to say to every one who comes near
her. She makes a good impression by her simple manners,
and receives from the aristocracy of Lower Normandy
most eager attentions. . . . She runs about all over the
place without a suite, accompanied only by one of her
most intimate ladies."

On the 29th there was a naval ball at the Arsenal,
but the Empress, stifled with the heat, only stayed a
quarter of an hour ; however, she sent her ladies back to
it. Next day there was boating in the roads, lunch on
the dyke, while the fleet dressed ships and saluted. In
the evening the Empress went to the play, a performance
by the Opera Comique Company. People were delighted
that she made three curtseys on entering, as at the
Tuileries theatre, "for it was not expected, and the
impression she produced is extraordinary in consequence
of the mixture of dignity, of kindness, of virgin grace,
which appears in her face and deportment. Next day
there was a fishing-party, seynes nets thrown. The
Empress drove into the sea in a little pony carriage, and
the suite got a footbath." As a memento of this Imperial
visit and the new dock, Cherbourg was to be called
Napoleonville.

At Rheims, on her return journey, the Empress
visited the dye-works of Gonfreville, and was shown
a new colour, called in her honour " bleu Marie
Louise."

She had the frefet and his wife to dine, at which

250 An Imperial Victim

Napoleon, always careful to shield Marie Louise's in-
nocence, was annoyed, for the lady was a divorcee.

On the very day that the tide rushed into the new
dock at Cherbourg, the flood of the French army over-
whelmed the Allies at the battle of Dresden. Marie
Louise heard of the victory as she was leaving Cherbourg,
and wrote to Meneval, who had not accompanied her :
" My health would be very good if I had not a bad cold
on my chest, which makes me very ill, but I shall not do
anything to cure it till I am back in Paris. Besides, the
good news I have received to-day will do me more good
than any amount of drugs. I hope this great victory
will soon bring back the Emperor, and, with him,
peace."

But defeats followed, and the Treaty of Toplitz,
between Austria, Russia, and Prussia, which rendered the
annihilation of Napoleon possible. He was ill from
exposure at Dresden. For a week no letter of his reached
St. Cloud, and the Empress, who wrote constantly,
describing the feelings in Paris and the provinces for
peace, grew anxious. At last, very early on the morning
of September 1 1, Meneval had a note from her : " I send
you a letter from the Emperor which arrived yesterday,
very late. I think that you will be pleased to read it,
because you have shared my uneasiness. When you
have taken note of it, I beg you to send it back to me."

Napoleon knew how anxious they were in Paris for
news. The same day he had written to Bassano : " They
are so impatient for news in Paris that you should not
neglect any means of sending it. Soften it as much as
possible," and, with his usual thoughtfulness for Marie
Louise, he adds, " avoid inserting anything personal
against the Emperor and Metternich."

And, indeed, the news required softening. For, while
Napoleon spent September manoeuvring in Bohemia and

The First Regency 251

Silesia against Russia and Prussia, Jerome had to fly from
Westphalia before the Cossacks, and Bavaria was dragged
into the coalition.

The outbreak of the war had made any communi-
cation between the Kaiser and his daughter difficult, if
not impossible. She felt it very much. Judge, then, of
her delight, towards the end of September, to receive at
last a letter from him, which he had enclosed in a note
to Napoleon, begging the latter to forward it. She
hastened to reply • " It is impossible for me to tell you
how pleased I was when, in the Emperor's letter, I found
yours. I have been deeply touched by this attention.
I was prepared, as long as the war lasted, not to receive
any news from you. This silence was hard for me. . . .
I pray God every day to put an end to hostilities. I
should then be at peace, and no longer have to divide
my feelings. The Emperor has promised to send you
on my letters punctually. I will write to you as often as
possible, for you know, dear father, that it is one of my
greatest pleasures. I think a great deal about you, and
I am touched that you are satisfied with my conduct.
You see, I do my utmost, dear father, to follow the
principles which you have inculcated by your example."

Nevertheless, it was nearly two months ere she could
send a letter to him again.

Kaiser Franz, to do him justice, was now, to the
utmost of his power, working on the Allies on behalf of
France, " for the welfare of the country in which my
daughter is settled can never be quite indifferent to me."
He certainly had at this moment no thought of restoring
the Bourbons or of dethroning Marie Louise.

Napoleon had need of a fresh army and further
supplies. He wrote ordering the Empress-Regent to
attend an extraordinary meeting of the Senate to be called
for October 8. It was to be informed of the threatening

252 An Imperial Victim

forces and of the defection of his ally Bavaria, known in
Paris even before he heard of it himself. Coming from
her lips the bad news would be softened, his own prestige
less damaged.

The Empress-Regent went in state — coronation coach,
equerries riding round it, escort of troops, of great
officers of State. She was received by twenty-four
Senators. After resting in the rooms prepared for her
she mounted the throne, which was to the left of the
Emperor's, the household behind, the officials in front.

"She spoke," says Rovigo, who heard her, Ct with a
dignity which gave her youth a lustre more brilliant than
her birth and rank."

In solemn silence Marie Louise read her speech :
" Senators, the principal powers of Europe, disgusted by
the pretensions of England, had, last year, joined their
armies to ours, to effect the peace of the world and
the settlement of the rights of all nations. At the
first mischances of war, slumbering passions awoke.
England and Russia have dragged Austria and Prussia
into their cause. Our enemies wish to destroy our allies
in order to punish their fidelity. They desire to carry
the war into the heart of our beautiful country in order
to revenge themselves over the triumphs which have led
our victorious eagles into the midst of their States. I
know better than any one what our nation would have to
dread if ever it allowed itself to be conquered. Before
ascending the throne to which I was called by the choice
of my august spouse, and the wish of my father, 1 had
the highest opinion of the courage and energy of this
great nation. This opinion has been daily increased by
what I have seen passing before my eyes. Associated for
the last four years with the most intimate thoughts of
my husband, I know with what feelings he would be
torn if seated on the throne of a humiliated country.

The First Regency 253

Frenchmen ! your Emperor, your country, your honour,
calls you ! "

" She was attentively listened to," says Rovigo, " and
every one was interested in her, and she left the Senate
amid most respectful enthusiasm." A levy of four
hundred thousand men was decreed, and treasure which
had lain for sixteen years in the vaults of the Tuileries
was used to recruit it.

Next day the Regent, in the Salle de Mars, gave
audience at St. Cloud to the municipal council of Paris,
which was full of protestations of devotion. But the
day after came the terrific catastrophe of Leipzig.

On Paris the blow fell with overwhelming force.
A gleam of brightness to the Regent must have been
the address presented to her at St. Cloud by deputations
from " your six good towns " of the Low Countries
and Belgium — Antwerp, grateful for Napoleon's great
naval works there, Brussels and Ghent thankful for
assistance in weakness and disunion, and the latter re-
calling itself to the Empress as the cradle of her ancestor,
Charles V.

Another grain of comfort must have been the twenty
captured flags sent the day before by Napoleon, with a
letter : u Madame and dearest wife. I send you twenty
flags taken by my armies at the battles of Leipzig and
Hannau. It is an homage it gives me pleasure to tender
to you. I wish that you take it as a mark of my great
satisfaction with your conduct during the Regency I
entrusted to you." Napoleon, retreating homewards with
all that was left of his armies, wrote from Mainz, where
only so lately they had spent such happy days together.

Madame Durand writes that Marie Louise this time
dreaded Napoleon's return ; she was afraid he would
love her less on account of her father's broken faith
with him. But never did he love her more.

254 An Imperial Victim

In the dusk of a November afternoon a shabby
post-chaise rattled into the courtyard of St. Cloud. The
Empress was in the King of Rome's rooms, playing
with her boy, when the cry was raised that the Emperor
had returned. Napoleon had come up the stairs ere she
met him, followed by the King of Rome, led by the
Comtesse de Montesquieu. When she saw him Marie
Louise burst into tears.

" Moved and touched, he took her in his arms
with a redoubled tenderness. Then the son, brought
by the gouvernante, came to put the last touch to a
family meeting which interested intensely the small
number of spectators who saw it."

Napoleon was calm and resigned. Not by a word
did he blame Marie Louise, nor did he vouchsafe a
syllable as to the fate of the campaign. He only
smiled when she said to him, through her tears : u The
Emperor, my father, told me, when he placed me on
the throne of France, that he would support me there ;
and my father is an honest man."

CHAPTER XV

THE LAST FAREWELL

IN the middle of November Marie Louise received
a letter from her father, the first she had had for
six weeks. It was brought by the Comte de St. Aignan,
who had been made a prisoner. He was now sent to
Paris by the Allies bearing negotiations for peace upon
the basis of Napoleon's return to his natural frontiers.
They thought him sure to refuse, yet the offer might
make a good effect upon the French nation, and isolate
Napoleon from his people. But on November 15 the
Senate, still obsequious, voted thirty thousand recruits ;
the corps Ugislatif^ however, stood out for peace.

Marie Louise replied at once to her father : " God
grant that peace may soon be granted to us to resume
our regular private correspondence. It would put an
end to my anxiety. You cannot imagine how much
I am troubled by the thought that you and my husband
are enemies, while you each are of such a nature as
should make you intimate friends. The Emperor is
very well. I think he is fatter and better than when
he left for the war. . . . We are going back to town
to-day, which does not please me much, for the air of
St. Cloud is better than that of Paris."

The Allies hesitated to cross the frontiers ; they
were in no hurry to bring back the Bourbons. Napoleon
was blind to the royalist plottings, and still obsessed

255

256 An Imperial Victim

with his star. He did indeed replace Bassano for Foreign
Affairs by Caulaincourt, but when, upon the latter's
advice, early in December, Napoleon offered to agree
to the Allies' proposals from Frankfurt it was too late,
for they had decided to crush him.

Marie Louise was uneasy and unhappy. On the
faces of all around her she saw anxiety stamped. For
the last time the Fete of Austerlitz and the coronation
was celebrated in Paris on December 4— the usual re-
ception, Te Deum, the tragedy of Ninus II. at the
palace theatre, free performances at the theatres. But
this time the city had to be invited to illuminate ;
previously it had done so spontaneously. Every
one was downcast ; Marie Louise often found in
tears.

The Emperor and Empress now spent a few quiet
days at the Trianon for the latter's birthday, of which,
however, there was no public celebration. The Tri-
anons were well guarded.

On December 19 Napoleon opened the corps Ugis-
latif with great pomp. The procession crossed the
gardens of the Tuileries, the Place and bridge of La
Concorde ; but when the Emperor left his carriage on
the terrace in front of the buildings there was no cheer-
ing. The Empress, Queen Hortense, and their suites
sat in the tribunes facing the throne. An icy silence
reigned in the chambers. The Emperor's speech was
sad, but dignified. He spoke of victories, of defections ;
of his wish for peace, of his enemies' refusal ; he ap-
pealed to the nation.

Diplomacy was now a thing of the past. It was a
question of invasion and the luck of war. The Allies
poured over the Rhine. Schwarzenberg, commanding
the Austrian forces, somewhat unwillingly and circuitously
advanced on France. Austria was still loath to dethrone

The Last Farewell 257

Marie Louise; but, as in 1870, France was prepared
only for the offensive, not for the defensive.

On New Year's Day the receptions seemed the same
as usual. The great bodies of the State and of the city
were ranged in the Throne-room of the Tuileries to proffer
their good wishes ; as Marie Louise passed through the
Galerie de Diane, on her way to Mass, they were drawn
up to greet her. But Napoleon was sad and annoyed.
He had sent the recalcitrant corps legist at if about their
business ; he feared further defections, and mistrusted
even his own brothers.

Probably, of all her surroundings, Marie Louise was
alone hopeful, partly because of her youth and natural
light-heartedness, and partly because she was still hood-
winked. She was told that negotiations would be
resumed, and her father's New Year's letter cheered
her:

"DEAR LOUISE,

UI have received your letter of December 12,
and am pleased to learn that you are well. I thank you
for all your wishes which you sent me for the New Year,
and which are dear to me because I know you. I send
you mine, with all my heart. As regards peace, rest
assured that I do not wish for it less than you, than
all France, and, I hope, your husband. It is only in
peace that one finds happiness and safety. My views
are moderate. I wish for everything that can ensure
the continuance of peace, but in this world it is not
enough to wish. I have great duties to fulfil towards
my allies, and, unfortunately, the questions of a future
peace, which I hope will be a speedy one, are very
involved. Your country has upset everything. When
one arrives at these questions, one has to combat just
complaints and prejudices ; but the thing is not the less

258 An Imperial Victim

the most ardent wish of my heart, and I hope soon that
we may be able to reconcile our nations. In England
there is no ill-will, but they are making great pre-
parations. This, of course, causes delay till eventually
the affair is in train, when, please God, it will go all
right. The news you give me of my son [sic] makes
me very happy. Your brothers and sisters were well the
last time I had news of them, also my wife. I am also
very well. Believe me,

a Your loving father,

« FRANZ."

Had Marie Louise been better versed in diplomacy
she would have read between the lines of this private
and affectionate letter. Her father was warning her, as
openly as he dared, that Napoleon, and not France, was
the Allies' objective, and that it no longer lay in his power
to direct affairs, that he was in the hands of his Allies.
But Napoleon was determined to spare her all anxiety
possible, and from her entourage she heard more of peace
than of war. Yet her reply to her father shows that
she had somewhat gauged the situation, which filled her
with fear, both for herself, her husband, and her father :
" Since your troops crossed the frontier of France the
whole nation is in arms. I fear that the Emperor will
soon leave me for the army, and that he will leave me
in the midst of a city which is preparing to fight for
its defence."

Then burst the thunderclap of Murat's defection.
Napoleon would hardly believe it : " No, it cannot be !
Murat ! to whom I gave my sister ! Murat ! to whom
I have given a crown ! "

Napoleon's extraordinary blindness at this period had
extended even to Murat's machinations in Italy. Marie
Louise's astute old grandmother, the ex-Queen of Naples,

The Last Farewell 259

who had escaped from Sicily to Vienna, her birthplace,
by an adventurous route by Constantinople, had warned
the French ambassador at Vienna as to the feelings
against Napoleon at Naples, and that Murat's agent was
treating at Vienna. King Joseph tried in vain to bring
Murat back to his allegiance, and Napoleon, as a counter-
move, offered the Pope leave to return with his cardinals
to Rome. But it was two months too late.

The moment had now come for Napoleon to take
the field again, to sally forth once more ; but not as
conqueror. With his back to the wall, he was to fight
a outrance for his dominions and his dynasty.

For the second time Marie Louise was appointed
Regent, Cambaceres again President of the Council of
Regency. King Joseph, late of Spain, was made military
governor of Paris, Napoleon having patched up a recon-
ciliation with him. Joseph, in his frivolous cosmopolitan
little Court at Mortefontaine, half French, half Spanish,
had. posed as a martyr and grumbled at his brother.
Early in the year his title of King was assured to him,
and he was allowed to come back to the Paris he loved,
and live at the Luxembourg. He was made a member
of the Regent's Council ; but she did not know him at
all well, and Napoleon had been at no pains to further
the acquaintanceship. So Marie Louise could not count
much on support from her brother-in-law.

The special letters-patent appointing " our well-
beloved spouse, Empress and Queen,1* etc., etc., differed
somewhat from those made out for the first Regency.
They implied a conformity to " our orders," and hedged
her about with a Council of Ministers, a Council of
State, and a Privy Council. Did their tone indicate
a want of confidence? Was Napoleon fearful of a
rapprochement between his wife and her father during
his absence?

260 An Imperial Victim

" Napoleon, par la grace de Dieu et les constitutions,
Empereur des Fransais, Roi d'ltalie, Protecteur de la
Confederation du Rhin, Mediateur de la Confederation
Suisse, etc., etc., a tous ceux qui ces presents veront,
salut, etc., etc. Voulant donner a notre bien-aimee
Epouse, Imp6ratrice, et Reine, Marie-Louise, des marques
de la confiance que nous avons en elle, attendu que nous
sommes dans 1'intention d'aller nous mettre incessament
a la tete de nos armees, pour d£livrer notre territoire de la
presence de nos ennemis, nous avons r6solu de conftrer,
comme nous conftrons par ces presents, a notre bien-aimee
fipouse, Imperatrice et Reine le titre de Regente, pour en
exercer les fonctions en conformite de nos intentions et
de nos ordres tels que nous les auront fait transcrire sur le
livre de 1'fitat. Entendant qu'il soit donne connaissance
aux princes et grands dignitaires et a nos ministres les dits
ordres et instructions ; et quen aucun cas r Imperatrice en
puisse secarter de leur teneur dans 1'exercice et les fonctions
de Regente; voulons que I'lmperatrice-Regente preside, en
notre nom, le Senat, le Conseil des Ministres, le Conseil
d'Etat, et le Conseil Prive, notamment pour 1'examen des
recours en grace, sur lesquels nous Tautorisons a prononcer
apres avoir entendu les membres du dit Conseil Prive.
Toutefois notre intention n'est point que par suite de la
presidence conferee a I'lmperatrice-Regente, elle puisse
autoriser, par sa signature, la presentation d'aucun Senatus-
Consulte, ou proclamer aucun loi de TEtat, nous referons
a cet egard au contenu des ordres et instructions men-
tionnees ci-dessus.

" NAPOLEON."

The day before his departure Napoleon arranged one
of those dramatic scenes of which he was so fond, and
by means of which he hoped to leave Marie Louise
firmly entrusted to the chivalry of the French nation.

The Last Farewell 261

On January 23 the officers of the National Guard
of Paris received orders to attend at the Salle des
Marechaux of the Tuileries. Unaware why they had
been sent for, they fell in, some seven to eight hundred
strong, round the great square hall on the first floor
of the Pavilion de 1'Horloge. When Napoleon passed
through to hear Mass in the chapel he was acclaimed with
shouts of " Vive I'Empereur ! "

During Mass, the Comtesse de Montesquieu was
ordered to bring the King of Rome so that he might
enter the hall at the same moment as his mother. The
Emperor returned from Mass, went round the ranks,
chatting to some of the officers, and then placed himself
in the middle of the hall.

The door opposite opened, and the Empress appeared,
her boy in her arms. Signing to her to put him down,
the Emperor took one of his hands, Marie Louise the
other, and they advanced towards the rank of officers.

" Generals and officers of the National Guard/' began
Napoleon, with much feeling, " I am pleased to see you
gathered round me. A part of the French territory is
invaded ; I am leaving to-night to place myself at the
head of the army, and, with the help and valour of my
troops, I hope to repulse the enemy beyond the frontier.
I leave with confidence, in your guard, on quitting my
capital, my wife and my son, on whom are fixed so many
hopes. I owe you this proof of confidence in return
for all those proofs which you have never ceased to give
me in all the principal events of my life. I shall leave
them with an easy mind, free from anxiety, when they
are under your faithful protection. I leave you what
is dearest to me in the world, after France, and entrust
them to your care. It may be that, in consequence of
the manoeuvres I am about to make, that the enemy will
seize the opportunity to approach your walls. Should

262 An Imperial Victim

this occur, remember that it will be only an affair of
a few days, and that I shall soon come to your assistance.
I enjoin you to be united among yourselves, to resist all
insinuations which may be attempted in order to sow
disunion amongst you. ' People will not fail to attempt
to shake your loyalty to your duty, but 1 rely upon your
repulsing such perfidious instigations."

Here he paused, and, pointing to the child, who
looked very solemn, exclaimed : " I entrust him to you,
gentlemen, I entrust him to the affection of my faithful
city of Paris. Should the enemy approach I entrust to
the courage of the National Guard the Empress and

the King of Rome — my wife, my son " and his voice

broke.

The effect was enormous. The hall rang with shouts
of « Vive 1'Empereur ! " " Vive Flmperatrice ! " " Vive
le Roi de Rome ! " There was not a dry eye in the
place. Many officers broke the ranks and flung them-
selves on the Emperor's hands, kissing them, and
weeping.

Marie Louise, usually so calm, nearly fainted.

When she had withdrawn with the King of Rome
Napoleon held his usual reception of high dignitaries, but
it was a less brilliant function than on former occasions,
and there was hardly a foreign diplomat present.

Queen Hortense dined with the Emperor and
Empress, " a sad evening. She wept as my mother wept
when he was leaving her, and I think that her show of
affection is sincere. "

In the evening there was a reception of petites entrees.
The Empress retired early, the Emperor soon followed ;
but before he left he conversed with the ministers, almost
in the tone of one making his will. Mollieu, Minister
of the Treasury, inquired how to raise money, as the
Treasury was being emptied.

By Sir Thomas Lawrence.

LE ROI DE ROME.

263

The Last Farewell 265

" Mon cher" Napoleon replied, " if the enemy reaches
the gates of Paris, there is no longer an Empire ! "

As he withdrew ; " Au revoir, Messieurs, nous nous
reverrons, peut-etre ! " which filled Rovigo with sadness,
for it seemed to him that his master was bidding a last
farewell.

The little King of Rome went to sleep that night in
Napoleon's arms, his head on his father's breast, his arms
round his neck. Napoleon made a sign not to awaken
him, and himself placed him carefully in his cot.

In the early morning Marie Louise, in tears, said
good-bye to her husband for the last time.

i— 16

CHAPTER XVI

THE SECOND REGENCY

THE day following Napoleon's departure the Em-
press-Regent received in the Throne-room of the
Tuileries a deputation of the National Guard, under
Marshal Moncey, presenting an address in which loyalty
verged on adulation. On the evening of the same day
the Empress wrote to her private secretary : " I beg you
to come rather early to me to-morrow. There is nothing
but the question of how to frame a reply to the speech
of the National Guard. I hope your advice will help me
to make a nice one, for I have no idea at all up to the
present."

She thought the reply evolved by Meneval too cold,
and had it altered, for she had been so touched by the
warmth of the demonstration.

The enthusiasm about Marie Louise was intense in
Paris. Dupaty composed a song, which was sung in all
the threatres, the chorus :

Gardens la bien !
II est parti.

Napoleon had left Paris alone on the 2jrd, without
any reinforcements, but full of a sanguineness which in-
fluenced his generals and his men. On the 25th he
had beaten the Prussians at Brienne, " Blilcher," wrote
his exasperated ally, Schwarzenberg, <c running like a
school-boy."

266

The Second Regency 267

But the invasion had thrown Paris into a state of
panic. Refugees from a hundred miles round, with their
goods and chattels, filled the streets. Worse, Paris, the
objective of the Allies, " who only dreamed of Paris . . .
foaming with the wine of champagne they do not cease
to shout * A Paris ! ' " writes Schwarzenberg — Paris was
seething with suppressed sedition. The traitors were
sitting on a 'rail, awaiting the saltatory performance of
the domestic feline favourite. A stronger Council of
Regency, or a Council of War, was required to meet the
occasion. But if King Joseph was weak and fearful,
Cambaceres was weaker still, and Marie Louise no Maria
Theresa. But in her troubles her thoughts turned
to religion. A " forty-hours " and a Miserere were
arranged at Notre Dame. At Marie Louise's own wish
intercessions were made at S. Genevieve. But Napoleon
would have none of it, and wrote to stop them all.

" In her councils of Regency," writes Bausset, " Marie
Louise, because business did not interest her, and also
because she mistrusted herself, always followed the advice
given her." In that she resembled her father, who,
Napoleon had remarked, " always agreed with the last
person who spoke to him." " She had all the weakness
of kindliness ; never made up her mind about anything/'
writes Bausset, " and really, in the affairs of government,
had no other opinion than that which was inspired by
people in whom she knew the Emperor placed con-
fidence. . . ." This second Regency was a very different
matter to the first. No figure-head was required, but a
bold and clever brain ; and it was lamentably lacking.

The month of February opened badly ; Napoleon
was beaten by Schwarzenberg at Rothiere. Joseph, in
Paris, was hurrying on the work of defence and writing
to his brother in the lowest of spirits. He had made
arrangements to remove the treasure at six hours'

268 An Imperial Victim

notice ; some fourgons in the Place du Carrousel were
already loaded. The Museum of the Louvre was shut,
and its treasures were to be removed to a place of
safety. " The Empress more confident to-day. I have
spent the day in instilling hopes into people who have
less firmness than the Empress." Later : " Public
opinion to-day was downcast, and I have much trouble
in keeping up the hopes of a good many people. I
saw the Empress yesterday, and I left her more tranquil
last night ; she had just received a letter from Your
Majesty about the Congress. The men come in, but
there is a want of money to clothe them."

He referred to the abortive Congress of Chatillon,
just assembled, waging diplomatic conflicts simultaneously
with battles. Caulaincourt was doing his best at it, but
his master, once more plunged into his element, a whirl
of warfare, like a lion at bay, simply would not listen to
reason. The Allies were absolutely determined that
France should be once more " cribbed, cabined, caged,
confined " within her natural frontiers.

On February 6, Napoleon, beaten back out of
Troyes, wrote to Joseph to have everything that was
precious, that might serve as a trophy, removed from the
palace of Fontainebleau. He judged his enemy's looting
propensities by his own, but unjustly. Things looked
black indeed ; the French troops were separated, at the
foot of the Alps, the Pyrenees, or on the Elbe, and the
Austrians had lured Murat under their banner. " My
marriage has been my misfortune," wrote Napoleon
bitterly." " I do not complain of the Empress, but I
have relied too much on the Austrians ! " He wrote to
Marie Louise to send orders to Eugene Beauharnais to
evacuate Italy and to join Augereau at Geneva.

The Allies swarmed over Belgium, Chalons capitulated,
" which spreads consternation," wrote Joseph. The

The Second Regency 269

following day Marie Louise wrote to him pathetically :
" The Emperor tells me not to worry myself. You know
that is impossible ! " Joseph began to be anxious about
her, hoping it might not be necessary to send her away,
but " unable to hide from myself that the consternation
and despair of the populace might have sad and fatal
results. . . . Men attached to the Government fear that
departure of the Empress might fill the populace of the
city with despair, and yield a capital and an Empire
to the Bourbons.'*

Things looked so bad that Marie Louise feared that
Napoleon might be tempted to allow himself to be killed ;
allusions in his letters show that this was no unfounded
alarm, and that he knew of her anxiety on that score.
But anything was preferable to a dishonourable peace.

Then, suddenly, the scene changed with lightning
rapidity. Blilcher was under forty miles from Paris when
Napoleon beat the Russians successively at Champ-
Aubert and at Montmirail, and Bliicher at Vauchamps.
The revulsion of feeling in Paris was great. When Joseph
reviewed the National Guard in the Cour du Carrousel of
the Tuileries, the little King looking on from a window,
delighted, was greeted with shouts of " Vive FEm-
pereur ! " The Empress ordered cannon to be fired, and
the good news to be announced at the theatres that
evening. For even in this stress Paris was still frivolous,
and the theatres open.

Napoleon followed up his victories with that of
Montereau over Schwarzenberg. " The Austrians have
guaranteed my palace of Fontainebleau from the pillage of
the Cossacks ! " he cried. His pen as indefatigable as his
sword, he wrote a persuasive and pathetic letter to the
Kaiser pointing out that it was to the interest of Austria
as well as of France to make peace. He instructed the
Regent to write with her own hand letters to the mayors

2 70 An Imperial Victim

of all the important towns on the northern frontier, of
Orleans, Belgium — letters which were to be all of the same
gist, but diversely worded; letters to stir them up to
patriotic exertions, to acquaint them of the recent
successes, and to point out the national danger if France
lay supine. The National Guard was loyal and devoted
to the Empress and the King of Rome, but Paris lay
apathetic, desirous only of peace, and that as quickly as
possible, and unwilling to act except on the defensive. On
the 2ist the Empress held a Council to arrange h^*f*^est
to obtain the two thousand horses for which Napoleon
had asked. Three days later she held another, " much
encouraged by the successes."

On the 24th Napoleon re-entered Troyes, the capital
of Champagne, and Marie Louise was ordered to have
thirty guns fired for the event. The day before
Schwarzenberg had sent to sound Napoleon as to an
armistice. The latter taunted the Kaiser's envoy with
falling in with England's suggestions and making war on
her own dynasty, " the Emperor working to dethrone his
own daughter." The envoy disclaimed it. " Such a
project would be against nature. The Emperor, my
august sovereign, would never lend himself to it."

Napoleon's successes having somewhat lowered the
tone of the Allies at the Congress, they offered ten days
in which he was to accede to or refuse their terms. Other-
wise, when the date was reached, the Congress would
dissolve.

Marie Louise held an extraordinary Council, which
voted solid against the enemy's conditions. All Napo-
leon's letters to Joseph were read, and he was implored to
make peace.

On Sunday 27 a grand procession left the War
Office. Preceded by a band of military music, and
followed by an escort of cavalry, two officers of the

The Second Regency 271

Imperial Guard, four of the line, and four of the
National Guard, bore in triumph to the Tuileries fourteen
flags taken from the enemy — one Austrian, four Prussian,
nine Russian. Previously to being deposited at the
Invalides, these were presented to the Empress-Regent
with a loyal and stirring address, by the Duke of Feltre,
the Minister of War. Marie Louise made a spirited
reply : c' Monsieur le Due de Feltre, Minister of War, I
behold with deep emotion the trophies which you present
to me by order of the Emperor, my august sovereign.
In my eyes they are hostages of the salvation of the
country. At the sight of them may Frenchmen rise
in arms! May they press round their monarch ! Their
courage, led by his genius, will soon have effected the
deliverance of his genius ! "

Thus, indeed, might Maria Theresa have addressed
her officers during the invasion of Austria by Frederic.
But the harangue of her descendant was not destined to
bear similar fruit. This memorable occasion was to be
Marie Louise's last public appearance as Empress of the
French. For her words fell on deaf ears. In January
Metternich had said to the Czar : u On the day the
Empire falls there is nothing possible but the return of
the Bourbons. Never will the Emperor Francis support
another Government than theirs."

Yet at that moment she was sanguine again, and had
written to her father only the evening before, feeling sure
that he would not abandon her, and hoping that the worst
was past. t( It is not good statesmanship to wish to force
us into a shameful peace which could not last. Here
they will rather die than accept such conditions. Only
think, my dear father, in what a situation I should
find myself. It would be a blow which I could never
survive. I implore you therefore, my dear father,
to remember me and my son. You know how much

272 An Imperial Victim

I love you, and I believe that I possess your paternal
affection." She added that the anxiety and the gravity
of the situation, and her husband's absence, were affecting
her health, and ended : ult rests with you to put an
end to my anxiety, does it not ? You will do it ! "

It was but the lull of the storm. The very day
that the trophies were deposited at the Invalides, BlUcher
began again advancing on Paris. He reached the very
gates of Meaux. Behind Caulaincourt's back at Chatillon,
England, Austria, Russia, and Prussia bound themselves
by a treaty to last for twenty years, to continue the war
a outrance. At Paris all was discouragement again.
Marie Louise, with only panic-stricken Joseph to lean
upon, felt more of a victim than a sovereign. She
presided at an extraordinary meeting of the Council of
Regency which agreed, with one dissentient voice, to
accept the conditions of the allies, conditions that would,
at least, preserve the dynasty.

At the time Napoleon was at Craonne and at
Laon. Joseph implored him to seize this opportunity to
make peace, and even suggested that Marie Louise might
intercede officially with her father. But this only drew
down a severe reprimand. Napoleon quite declined to
have Marie Louise interfere ; he was still too proud " to
be helped by women," he said. " I am annoyed that you
have been speaking to my wife of the Bourbons and
of the opposition which the Empress of Austria might
bring to bear against them. I hope you will avoid such
conversations. I will not be protected by my wife ; that
idea would spoil her, and cause discord beween us. Why
talk to her like that ? Let her live as she lives and only
speak to her of what she must know in order to sign, and
above all, avoid any conversation which might lead her to
think that I would consent to be protected by her and
her father. Never, for four years, has the name of

The Second Regency 273

Bourbon or of Austria passed my lips. Besides which, all
that would only trouble her tranquillity and spoil her
excellent nature. The Emperor of Austria can do
nothing, because he is led by Metternich and bought
by England. That is the secret of everything."

Though kindly considerate as ever of Marie Louise,
Napoleon had indeed taken the measure both of his wife
and her father !

The Allies were in a bad plight ; recriminating
over each other, they remained eight days inactive, which
gave Napoleon time to reorganize his feeble army,
retake Rheims, and put Soissons and even Compiegne
in a state of defence. Meanwhile the Congress pined
away from inanition. Three days he spent imperially
at Rheims, directing the Empire by imperious letters ;
"The guard was melting," he wrote, and ordered the
works on the fortifications of Paris to be pushed on
hurriedly ; then he learnt that the mayor had opened
the gates of Bordeaux to the English.

Napoleon was now forced to alter his tone to Marie
Louise. He wrote asking her to write to her father
to beg the latter's intervention on his behalf. Marie
Louise replied the next day late by the following letter,
the only one ever discovered of a daily correspondence
which would have cleared up for posterity much that
remains unknown.

u MON CHER AMI,

" I have just received yours. I see with much
pleasure that you are happy at the turn of your affairs.
I hope they will now go quite to your satisfaction. At
least I wish it. I wish, won cher ami, that you may be
as happy as you deserve to be. The whole of Paris
is full of the good news. It seems much has been added
to what the courier had to tell, so that there is much

274 An Imperial Victim

talk of battles now and of peace. I wrote, as you wished,
to my father, but as it is a little late to-day I am
afraid I cannot send you a copy of the letter. You
shall have it to-morrow, for 1 will send it by the eleven
o'clock orderly. I wish very much my letters may
make a good impression, but I do not think they will.
My father never listens to me about business. ... I
found the Arch-Chancellor very brave this morning. He
spoke of his courage in a most surprising manner. I
have not seen the King. He hardly ever comes to
see me in the mornings. I think this will please you.
Your son kisses you ; he is very well indeed. He slept
very badly this night ; his sleep was restless, and he cried
out in his sleep. He said he had dreamed of his dear
papa, but he did not say in what way, and we were not
able to make him explain. My health is very good.
The spring suits me so well. The last two years the
cold has not suited me. It is mild enough for me to
ride. That does me much good, but what would do
me most good of all is to see you again and not to be
worried. I love you and I kiss you tenderly.

c< Tafidele amie,

<c LOUISE."

This letter was seized by the enemy.

To prevent a junction of Bliicher and the Czar and
to block the way to Paris, Napoleon attacked Alexander
at Arcis-sur-Aube. He was heroic, but outnumbered.
His prestige gone, forced to retreat, he undertook a
more audacious movement than any he had yet launched.

The third birthday of the little King of Rome was
being celebrated in Paris while his father was fighting his
last battle but one and exposing himself more recklessly
than he had ever done before. Marie Louise, the next
day, ignorant of the rupture of the negotiations, as of

The Second Regency 275

much else, wrote again to her father : " The nation is
full of courage and energy, especially the peasants, who
are incensed at the bad treatment they have received.
Your troops may be beaten. The armies of the Emperor
are finer and stronger than ever. It is to your interest,
as to ours, to offer us again the conditions of Frankfurt.
If not, in a few months, you might be forced into a more
onerous peace. ... In the name of all that is most
sacred, I conjure you, do not let yourself be led by the
greed of England, by the ambition and hatred of Count
Stadion. For you it will entail the sacrifice of the interests
of your Empire, the happiness of your family, the repose
of your life. The peace which is offered us, and which
humiliates us, is impossible to accept. You may rest
assured that, as I know the Emperor, he will never make
up his mind to it. You should go back to the conditions
of Frankfurt, the only ones profitable for France as
for Austria."

Indeed, Marie Louise had not been allowed to know
anything except what it was necessary for her to sign !
Hitherto Napoleon had ordered Joseph to conceal or
mitigate bad news. " Keep the Empress cheerful ! " had
been his watchword to his brother. Her eyes, however,
were shortly to be opened, and by Napoleon himself.

One evening, during the last days of March, the
Empress-Regent was receiving the petites entrees at the
Tuileries. All was gloom and uncertainty. Had the
enemy retreated, or was he converging on the capital ?
Even the ministers were as ignorant as the public. Calm
and mistress of herself, hiding her anxiety, Marie Louise
sat down to the card-table, asking the Duke de Rovigo to
be her partner ; but, ere the packs were opened, she
suddenly announced that she did not wish to play. Draw-
ing the Duke aside, she inquired of him if he had any
.news of the Emperor. When he replied in the negative,

276 An Imperial Victim

she said : " Then I can give you news, for I have re-
ceived some this morning." Savary was surprised, as
no courier had arrived. " It is true," added the Regent,
u that no courier has come in, but I shall surprise you
even more when I tell you that Marshal Bliicher has sent
me a letter from the Emperor, found, he says, with many
others, on a courier at the very moment when he was
taken by the enemy. To tell you the truth, I am in
terrible anxiety, since I have considered the consequences
which may result from this accident. The Emperor has
always, since his departure, written to me in cypher, and
all those cyphered letters have reached me in safety,
but this one, which is not cyphered, is the only one in
which he tells me of his plan, and it has fallen into
the enemies' hands. There is an ill-luck about this
which makes me miserable ! " And, indeed, this inter-
cepted letter was an important one, ending with the
cryptic phrase : " By this manoeuvre I am saved or
lost ! "

Napoleon was on the point of marching to Metz.
In three days he should have roused the frontier and the
Rhine garrisons, the troops from the Low Countries and
Lyons could have advanced. The peasants of the border
provinces were ready, on the slightest reverse to the
enemy, to rise and cut off their retreat. The Allies were
in a tight place. A national insurrection would have
backed Napoleon up. But traitors in Paris — men he had
loaded with favours — were in league with the foe, and
that fatal letter had given Bliicher the clue as to the
course to pursue.

Well might Marie Louise be anxious. She knew not
in whom to trust, whom to consult. Queen Hortense, in-
deed, came often to her, and they made lint for the
wounded. But a letter from Marie Louise and one from
Rovigo fell into the Czar's hands. Both acquainted

The Second Regency 277

Alexander with the disloyal machinations in Paris. On
reading it the Czar determined to march on the capital at
dawn. While Napoleon went on east towards Lorraine,
the Allies made for Paris. On March 27 Napoleon learnt,
through a prisoner, that Marmont, left to guard Paris,
had been defeated. Despite the advice of his best
generals, he turned back towards the capital. Leaving
his army to follow by forced marches, Napoleon, alone
with Berthier and Caulaincourt, hurled himself into a
post-chaise and took the Paris road.

The city, dreading reprisals for Moscow, was mad
with terror at the approach of the Allies. There was no
spurt of courage, no national leader, no patriotic move-
ment ; the very theatres remained open. The great-
granddaughter of Maria Theresa did not seize the
situation and her courage in both hands. King Joseph
was shaking in his shoes ; the garrison was small, weak,
and ill-armed, and the Czar and the King of Prussia
only fourteen leagues off!

On the Saturday King Joseph reviewed a batch of
conscripts, who went off to the front. Next day they
returned, scattered, war-stained, wounded. Evidently
there was fighting near at hand. In two hours the scene
on the boulevards changed. They became crowded with
suburban population, weeping and driving before them
their sheep and cows and carrying their little household
gods. Cannon were heard in the distance.

Queen Hortense came to the lonely Empress at the
Tuileries and helped her with her preparations for a
possible departure from Paris.

At half-past eight on the evening of March 28 the
Empress-Regent, seated in her arm-chair, presided at what
was to be her last Council, a Council which was to deter-
mine the fate of her husband and son. For it deliberated
if it were safe for her and the King of Rome to remain in

278 An Imperial Victim

Paris. Feltre, the War Minister, opened the ball : " He
mentioned all the dangers and none of the resources."
He was determined that she should immediately leave for
beyond the Loire, and his words sounded as if he washed
his hands of the consequences. Boulay, however, urged
the Empress to instant action — that she should emulate
the example of Maria Theresa, and, going to the Hotel de
Ville, the faubourgs, the boulevards, with her son in her
arms, raise the people of Paris in defence of the capital
and the dynasty. Rovigo, Massa, and Cadore supported
him warmly. 4C Paris had always decided the fate of
France." King Joseph and Cambaceres alone kept silence,
and the Regent glanced interrogatively round her council-
lors with anxious eyes.

Then Talleyrand spoke, and all present hung on his
words. Each doubted his loyalty, but all were curious to
see how the deep, dangerous man would express himself.
" Words," we have from himself, u are meant to conceal
your thoughts " ; but, on this occasion, slow, dignified,
authoritative, " he had the cleverness to speak the truth,"
plainly pointing out that the departure of the Empress
from Paris would leave the way open for the royalists.
Rovigo again supported his view, and, after a few minutes*
silence, the Chancellor took the vote. It was almost
unanimously in favour of her remaining.

But then Feltre reconsidered his opinion, and made
a long and warm and loyal harangue urging that the
Empress should rally the provinces by her presence, and
marvelling at those who would " leave the son of Hector
at the mercy of the Greeks." Then, at last, the voice of
Joseph was heard ; he had hitherto kept silence and had
not cast his vote. He now produced and read two letters
from Napoleon himself bearing upon the question. One
was from Nogent, dated February 4, and ran : " If, in
consequence of the events of the war, communications

The Second Regency 279

were cut off, I wish that the persons of the Empress and
my son should not be exposed. ... If news of a lost
battle or of my death comes, you will be acquainted with
it before the household ; make the Empress and the King
of Rome go to Rambouillet. . . . Never let the Empress
and the King of Rome fall into the enemies' hands. . . .
If I die, my son reigns and the Empress is Regent. For
the honour of the French, they should not let themselves
be captured, but rather retire to the last village. Do you
remember what was said of the wife of Philip V. ? What
would indeed be said of the Empress? That she had
abandoned the throne of her son and mine ; and the
Allies would like to put an end to everything by leading
them as prisoners to Vienna. ... I would rather," it
concluded, " have my son's throat cut, than have him
brought up at Vienna as an Austrian prince, and I think
well enough of the Empress to know that she is of the
same opinion as is possible for a wife and mother."

The second letter, written on March 16, between the
battles of Craonne and Laon contained these emphatic
words : " Do not allow, in any case, the Empress and the
King of Rome to fall into the enemy's hands. If the
enemy advances on Paris in such force as to make all
resistance impossible, send away, in the direction of the
Loire, the Empress, my son, the great dignitaries, the
ministers, officials of the Senate, the President of the
Council of State, the great officers of the Crown, the Baron
de la Bouillerie, and the Treasure. Do not leave my son,
and remember I would sooner see him in the Seine than
in the hands of the enemies of France."

These letters staggered the Council. Opinions
wavered. It was easier to follow the old line of blind
obedience to Napoleon than to take responsible action,
yet some members still urged contrary views. Talleyrand
repeated his remarks, Secretly he wished for a Regency,

280 An Imperial Victim

which, with himself as the Prime Minister " of a weak and
inexperienced woman, offered a fine prospect to his selfish-
ness." Cadore proposed to ignore the letters. Of what
use to assemble if the Emperor was to give orders ? The
Regent, very . embarrassed, asked Cambaceres' personal
advice. He, as ever, feared to compromise himself and
made an excuse. Joseph put an end to all discussion by
declaring all rebels who went counter to Napoleon's
expressed wishes. A third and last vote was taken ; it
was in favour of Marie Louise's departure. She then
reread Napoleon's letters, and, saying that she considered
them a sacred order, fixed her departure for nine o'clock
the next morning. ->

The Council broke up at ten in the evening. Sadly
the members descended the grand staircase of the
Tuileries, Talleyrand alone ironical and enigmatic.
All felt that it was the beginning of the end. Some
went up to Rovigo and urged him, as Minister of
Police, " to raise Paris in the morning, and the Empress
will not go." But he, remembering the Revolution,
hesitated to light a blaze he might not be able to
quench. Each said good-bye to his colleague, knowing
it was the last act of the Government.

King Joseph, Cambaceres, and Feltre conducted the
Regent back to her private apartments. They tried
to show her how her presence would foil disloyal plots,
how disastrous would be a retreat, and urged her to
take a line of her own. Marie Louise was torn all
ways at once. At one moment she determined to go
with her son to the Hotel de Ville and show herself,
the next she lacked courage to take the responsibility.

" You are my appointed councillors," she said, " and
I will not take upon myself to give an order contrary
to those of the Emperor, and to the resolutions of
the Council, without your formal and signed advice,"

The Second Regency 281

adding, as she left them, u should I fall into the Seine
with my son, as the Emperor said, I should not hesitate
a moment to go ; a wish so distinctly expressed is to
me an order."

But when she found herself in her bedroom, she
threw her hat on the bed, and, sitting down on the
sofa, hid her face in her hands and wept violently.
In the midst of her sobs one overheard the words : " Mon
Dieu ! let them make up their minds and put an end
to my agony ! "

" History," says Bausset, <cwill be unjust to Marie
Louise if she is accused of abandoning her capital when
she should have remained. In the ordinary course of
a life on a throne unshaken by political jars she would
have kept the love and admiration of France, as she
would have been its joy and ornament."

" Marie Louise," says Lamartine, " sheltered herself
behind ceremonials, in retreat and in silence, against the
ill-will which arose against her. . . . Napoleon loved
her for her pride and superiority. She was the blazon
of his affiliation to great dynasties. She was the mother
of his son, perpetuator of his ambition. . . . People
were unjust enough to demand of Marie Louise the
passionate devotion of love, when her nature could
only be inspired with duty and respect for the soldier
who looked upon her but a hostage of Germany, a
guarantee of prosperity. This constraint acted as a
restraint on her natural charms, gave her a grave expres-
sion, intimidated her mind, and chilled her heart. People
only saw in her a foreign decoration attached to the
pillars of the throne. Even history, written in
ignorance of the truth and with the resentment of
Napoleon's courtiers, has calumniated this Princess.
Those who knew her will restore to her, not the stoical
and theatrical glory demanded of her, but her nature.
1—17

282

An Imperial Victim

. . . The false dumbness of her silence hid womanly
thoughts which bore her far away from this Court.
Magnificent, but hard exile ! . . . She did not know
how to pretend, neither during her grandeur nor after
the reverses of her master ; it was her crime. The
meretricious world of this Court demanded a pretence
of conjugal passion from a captive of victory. She
was too natural to simulate love, when she had but
obedience, terror, resignation to offer. History will
accuse her, nature will pardon her. She was asked to
play a part ; the actress failed, the woman remained."

CHAPTER XVII

THE THIRD FLIGHT

NO one closed their eyes in the Tuileries on the night
of March 28. All through the mild spring
moonlit night packing went on fast and furiously. Servants
ran frightened through the lighted chambers, and many
an old domestic shed tears. Not only the Empress's
personal and private property was being removed by her,
but the treasure, and the crown jewels were being loaded
on thefourgons which were to follow her carriage.

In the early hours the Duchesse de Montebello came
to the prlfet du palais, who had not been to bed at all, to
inform him that her Majesty would leave Paris at 6 a.m.,
and that he was to accompany her. Wise after the event,
Bausset writes that he " should have remembered the old
adage — qui quittc la par tie, la perd" Musketry firing
was heard in the distance round Paris at 5 a.m. The
city was attacked on three sides.

At the hour appointed he was in readiness with the
carriages drawn up at the Pavilion de Flore, while
expectant crowds gathered in the Place du Carrousel, only
too ready to cut the traces and to keep the Regent with
them. Her mere presence seemed to the populace a
defence against the invasion of the foreigner.

Marie Louise, ready dressed, her ladies around her,
with her son, whose childish pertinacity in asking questions
respecting this unusual matutinal departure she had some

283

284 An Imperial Victim

difficulty in quelling, sat awaiting a final counsel from
King Joseph. Instead came, regardless of etiquette,
officers of the National Guard on duty and others,
invading her apartments. They had heard of her
leaving ; they reminded her of Napoleon's last words.
11 Remain ! " they cried. " We swore to defend you ! "
She thanked them, weeping. Her instinct was to remain.
A presentiment told her that if she left the Tuileries it
was for ever. But the Emperor's orders !

By 9 a.m. all Bausset's preparations had been com-
pleted ; but still no message. Till ten o'clock she waited,
and then she decided to start. But she had reckoned
without her son.

This three-year-old baby, as if foreseeing his life-
exile, quite declined to be taken from the room.

" I won't leave my home ! I'm master here, now
papa's away ! " he screamed, working himself into a little
passion. u I won't go to Rambouillet. Cest un vilain
chateau \ Let's stay here 1 "

He yelled, he kicked, he clung, first to the window-
curtains and then to the balustrade of the staircase, amid
the sad silence of all around him. The Comtesse de
Montesquiou and Madame Soufflot could not manage him
at all, and, finally, M. de Cannisy, his equerry, had to come
to their assistance and literally carry him out and into
the carriage, while his gouvernante tried to soothe him by
promising soon to bring him back. It was an inauspicious
start.

The suite that accompanied the Regent in her flight
were the Duchesse de Montebello, and the Comtesses de
Lugay, de Castiglione, Moritalivet ; the Comte de Beau-
harnais, Gontaut and Haussonville, chamberlains ; Prince
Aldobrandini, Hericy, Lambertye, de Cussy, equerries ;
Bausset, prefet du -palais ; de Seyssel, de Grouchy, Dr.
Corvisart, and three others. With the King of Rome

The Third Flight 285

went his gouvernante^ Mesdames Soufflot, Bomber, Mes-
grigny, Cannisy, equerry, and a doctor. Cambaceres and
the President of the Senate accompanied the Regent, but
she left Paris without ordering the Senate and the corps
/egislatifto move to another town.

In silence the sad procession passed out of the gate
by the Pont Royal. Not a cheer was raised, not a tear
shed by. the small crowd as it moved along the quays, of
Tuileries, of Chaillot, and left the city by the barrier of
Passy. Only a mixed guard of twelve hundred men —
cavalry of the guard and gendarmes d'elite — formed the
escort. Cussy, Seyssel, and Bausset, driving in a berlin
with Haussonville, thought it hardly strong enough. " A
hundred Cossacks and one gun," says the latter, "would
have spread confusion."

<c Nothing ever less resembled a court journey than
this tumultuous retreat of all sorts," remarks the prefet
du palais. First came twelve heavy berlins with the
Imperial coat of arms ; then the state coach and the
coronation coach, fourgons with precious furniture,
archives and papers, the treasure, the plate, the crown
diamonds. Yet such was the state of Paris and the
Parisians that the theatres were open that night, Iphigenia
in Aulis was given at the opera, and the Moniteur
had appeared that morning with a belated report of
Napoleon's victory at St. Dizier, the last war-news the
Moniteur was to give.

As the Empress fled, Chateaubriand, "from the
heights of the towers of Notre Dame, saw the head of
the Russian columns appear, like the first undulation of
the flow of the tide upon the sands," as he had seen it
in his boyhood at St. Malo. u I felt as a Roman must
have felt when, from the summit of the Capitol, he
descried the soldiers of Alaric and the old city of Latinus
at his feet. So I saw the Russian soldiers, at my feet

286 An Imperial Victim

the old city of the Gauls — Paris, which for centuries had
not spied the watch-fires of the enemy — Paris was the
point whence Bonaparte started to overrun the world ;
he returned thither, leaving behind him the enormous
conflagration of his useless conquests.'*

At three in the afternoon the Empress reached Ram-
bouillet. She at once wrote to King Joseph : " Kindly
send me word if the enemy has advanced. I await your
reply before deciding if I go farther or stay here. I beg
you, in the first instance, to tell me what you think the
safest place. I hope you may write and tell me to return
to Paris ; it is the piece of news which would cause me
most joy." All those surrounding her tried to spare her
as much as possible on this sad journey, to keep from
her bad news, to hide the falling away of those she ima-
gined faithful to her. " Once at Rambouillet," Bausset
says that " the ranks closed up, and round the Empress
and her son a group of persons collected, all animated
by the most honourable and disinterested devotion."

Meanwhile Marshals Marmont and Mortier, left to
protect Paris, found that Lieutenant-General and Gover-
nor Joseph had neglected to put the city in a state of
defence. All day they maintained an heroic resistance to
Prussians, Russians, and Austrians. But by the time
Marie Louise was reaching Rambouillet the tide of in-
vaders had lapped all round Paris. To save it from
assault and bombardment, Marmont concluded an armis-
tice, and decided that night to evacuate the city.

King Joseph 'had sworn to the National Guard that
he would not leave Paris. But he had had some practice
in running away in Spain, and at midnight he came
spurring into the courtyard of Rambouillet, having fled
from the city before the defence was over. He brought
no news of Napoleon, but gave orders that the fugitive
Court should hurry on next morning to Chartres,

The Third Flight 287

There the prtfet was away, but Marie Louise put
up at the Prefecture for the night, terribly anxious for
news of her husband.

At ten o'clock at night of the day she had left Paris
Napoleon, in his post-chaise, was driving furiously towards
Paris. At the Fountain of Juvissy he happened upon a
column of the evacuating army and heard the news.
Between him and the city he could see the bivouac-fires
of the enemy. Twenty minutes' deliberation, pacing up
and down the roadside in the dark, and then Napoleon,
despite the fact that he had thirty thousand Imperial
Guard to his hand, threw up the sponge. " If the enemy
reaches the gates of Paris there is no longer an empire ! "
he had said.

Retiring to Fontainebleau, he sent off at four in the
morning a disguised courier to the Empress. She had
pushed on to Chateaudun with her huge and unwieldy
train, but Joseph wrote that evening : " I have sent the
letter on to the Empress. I am leaving to-night to
follow Her Majesty. She was going to Tours, but after
what Your Majesty has said she will go to Blois with
what is here of the Government. That is also the plan
of the Ministers, who are here and leave to-night. The
Empress and the King of Rome are safe. I saw them
this evening. This evening they will be at Chateaudun.
The Ministers of War, of Finance, of the Treasury, of
the Home Office, and the Navy are here."

These officials, with King Jerome and the Queens of
Spain and Westphalia, had just arrived, Queen Hortense
having joined her mother Josephine at her chateau of
Navarre, in Normandy. They brought news that the
Emperor had sent an envoy to the Kaiser, who was at
Dijon, offering peace on any terms, but that Schwarzenberg
had declined an armistice, as he had already come to
terms with Marmont separately, as we have seen- The

288 An Imperial Victim

only Government officials left in Paris were the prefets
of the Seine and of the city. Talleyrand had asked per-
mission to remain, but it had not been granted. So he
made a feint of rejoining the Regent, only to return to
Paris quietly, there to await events and spin his web.

Marie Louise at this moment might still have saved
the Empire for her son. Bausset is of opinion that she
should have accepted the situation, and, replying to the
proclamation of the Allies saying that they fought Napo-
leon only, have secured a Regency which would have
assured the peace and security of Europe, which was all
the Allies then sought. A year later the Czar himself
remarked : " Last year a Regency would have been
possible." But he was not supported by Austria, and
had to fall back on the Bourbons ; for on April i the
Kaiser wrote that a Regency would be dangerous, that
Napoleon would reign under Marie Louise's name. He
preferred his provinces to his daughter.

But the suite with the Empress thought of nothing
but flight. It was Good Friday. But no celebration
of the day was possible even for such a devout daughter
of the Church as Louise la Pieuse. There was no rest
for the panic-stricken horde. The long line of heavy
coaches, crowded carriages, of fourgons loaded with
treasure, of weary soldiers and worn-out teams, trail-
ing along the road, pushed on to Vendome. The
Empress's train alone had a hundred horses to it. There
Marie Louise slept, or tried to, for a few hours ; for her
nerves were on the rack, and her health was already
failing under the storm and stress. In reply to a courier
from Fontainebleau announcing that the Allies had entered
Paris, Joseph writes to his brother : " Sire, the Empress
has just left for Blois, where she wishes to remain to-
morrow to let her escort and her horses rest. She shows
a courage and a calmness beyond her years and sex. I

The Third Flight 289

am awaiting the arrival of my family to leave here
also."

The Ministers and their staffs were scattered along
the road ; Joseph had no one to read Napoleon's cypher.
He wrote begging the Emperor to fix upon a seat of
government, and to Berthier imploring him to persuade
Napoleon to sue for peace.

The next day's journey to Blois was a terrible one,
made in pouring rain. The road was unfinished and
axle-deep in mud. The Empress's carnages stuck fast.
All the horses of the other carriages had to be taken out
and harnessed to one carriage at a time to drag them out.
The cavalry, with the fifteen treasure-wagons and many
baggage-wagons, had travelled all day and all the night,
but only reached Blois early on the morning of the 2nd.
A fourgon with two millions of francs went astray to
Orleans, and only turned up later. The state carriages,
even the great gilt-and-glass coronation coach, never
intended for such a jaunt, were shockingly knocked
about, covered with mud, washed by the rain, and then
coated in mud again.

Though the Empress had started in the small hours,
she did not reach Blois till dusk. A silent, curious
crowd watched the arrival of the sorry procession as it
passed through the narrow winding streets of the old
capital of the Valois kings between a line of mixed troops
and the scanty remains of the Imperial Guard. The
Regent was received by the prefet and conducted to the
Prefecture. But the Household and the Councils, even
Madame Mere, who had joined the fugitives, and the
wandering Kings and Queens, were lodged anywhere and
anyhow — up and down steps, some at a distance.

It was a terrible Easter Day that Marie Louise spent
at Blois. First she heard mass said by the Abb£ Galbois,
for she had brought no chaplain with her in her flight.

290 An Imperial Victim

Then she received the civic authorities. Leading the
King of Rome by the hand, she passed round the circle,
saying a word to each present, beginning with the clergy,
and trying in vain to hide her sadness. Next came her
brothers-in-law and the Queens, and then a Council was
held, which did nothing but talk and passed no edicts.
Some of the ministers who had fled to Tours returned ;
some were at Orleans and remained there ; others those
of Religion and of the Library, had escaped as far as
Brittany. All who assembled in the Prefecture were in
undress, booted and spurred, ready to ride off, and were
without their despatch-boxes. The palace was more like
a headquarter staff than a Court. But Cambaceres, <c with
whom came etiquette," had himself borne ceremoniously
to the Council in a sedan-chair he had unearthed.

At first the Empress was left in the dark and not
given any newspapers or despatches to read. So she
only thought that a disastrous peace had been concluded.
A prey to hopes and fears, she wrote daily to Napoleon
during the six days she spent at Blois, regretting, now
that it was too late, that she had left Paris, and not
believing it possible that her father would sacrifice her
and her son.

On the 2nd Napoleon sent orders to his relations not
to cumber up the city of Blois, which was none too well
pleased with this unexpected visitation, and none too well
provisioned. He suggested that they should scatter
south. But this hardly suited the plans of Joseph and
Jerome who wished to strike a blow for their future ;
Louis kept very quiet, devoutly observing Easter. More-
over, none of them had any money, all their allowances
being in arrears, so that any move was impossible.

The contagion of the disloyalty in Paris had reached
the troops with Napoleon, and on Easter Day Ney told
him the truth — that the army would no longer follow

The Third Flight 291

him, and that all was lost. So to Meneval, in cypher,
wrote Napoleon, bidding him prepare the Empress to
induce her father and Metternich to secure the Regency
for her, though even that might be impossible, and he
added enigmatically that, in the latter case, anything
might happen, even his death, in which event nothing
would be left to the Empress but to throw herself into
her father's arms.

Me"neval received this letter on the 4th. It made
the faithful servant extremely anxious. He burnt the
letter, but confided its contents to the Duchesse, on whom,
should any fatality happen, would rest the onus of telling
Marie Louise. She was unsympathetic. Without im-
parting his fears to the Empress, M£n£val induced her at
once to send the Due de Cadore, Secretary of the
Regency, to the Kaiser with a letter. The latter being
godfather to the Due's son, Marie Louise hoped the Due
would be a good ambassador for the King of Rome's
cause.

44 BLOIS, April 4, 1814.

" MY DEAR FATHER,

"I am sending you the Due de Cadore to
acquaint you with our sad situation. I ask you, as a
favour, to receive him yourself. He will tell you of it
better than I can write. Our situation is so sad and
alarming that my son and I have no refuge except with
you. I am sure that, at this moment, you alone can come
to my help, and that you will not sacrifice my tranquillity
and the interests of your grandson to England and
Russia. I know that the Due de Vicenza has gone to
Paris to negotiate and that the Emperor Alexander has
refused to see him. I am sure that the Emperor, in this
critical position, will make every sacrifice to give peace
and repose to his people. Paris would have made a
better defence had it not thought that it was being

An Imperial Victim

attacked by you and that you would never abandon your
daughter and grandson. It is, therefore, into your hands
that I commit myself, dear father: I am convinced that
you will save us from this awful situation. I am sending
the Due de Cadore to you from the place where I have
taken refuge. My health is suffering from all these
misfortunes. 1 am sure that you would not wish me to
remain in this cruel anxiety long. Once more, have pity
on me. I place in you the safety of what is dearest to
me in this world — a son too young to understand mis-
fortune and grief. I hope soon to have to thank you for
the happiness and repose which we shall owe to you.
I kiss your hand and am your obedient daughter,

" LOUISE."

That very morning Napoleon signed his abdication,
and sent Caulaincourt, Ney, and Macdonald to plead the
King of Rome's cause with the Czar, all unaware that,
with Marmont, his last remaining forces had gone over
to the Bourbons.

The pathetic position of the Empress at Blois, and
the intense anxiety she was in, touched the hearts of the
most faithful of her servants. " She sometimes," writes
M£n6val, " expressed to us her regret at having left
Paris, and her wish to rejoin the Emperor." He
mentions the obstacles to this course which certain of
her household placed in her way, the conflict of opinion
around her which led her to put off the project which
was in her mind. " Her anxiety was at its height ; the
violent emotions which she had experienced, the tears
she had continually shed, her sad and sleepless nights, had
induced a state of nerves which almost amounted to con-
vulsions. She could not imagine the state of feeling
which reigned in Paris. The assurances she had had
from her father constantly returned to her mind ; and she

The Third Flight 293

could not persuade herself that the Emperor of Austria
would sacrifice her with her husband and her son. Still
the events which were hurrying on in Paris left her
no illusion. She was overwhelmed ; but, like a drowning
sailor, she clung obstinately to the paternal affection which
seemed to her her only means of safety. Hearing that
the Emperor of Austria was not in Paris, she hoped that
he would not commit himself to what was done in his
absence and that his voice would be heard."

The Due de Rovigo, another " faithful friend,"
writes : " The Empress was abandoned to intense
anxiety. During the week we spent at Blois her face
was continually bathed in tears ; she had formed quite a
new opinion about the French. The malice of those who
forced her from the throne imputed to her weakness of
will part of those misfortunes which befell her, yet
they were not her fault at all. Had the Empress, only
a young woman of less than two and twenty, been of
an age and experience which gains self-confidence, and
allowed her to avail herself of the advice of those in whom
she could trust, events would probably have taken a
different turn ; but she was not in that position ; the
Emperor had arranged her surroundings, and she set an
example of submission. In her private, as well as in her
public life, she never transgressed the rigid conventionality
demanded by her youth, and which did not permit of con-
versation with any one whatever except those who had
been appointed her councillors. I had the honour to see
her several times during these sad moments, and I was
able to judge for myself of the devotion which she felt to
the Emperor. She said to me one day : c Those who
were of the opinion that I should stay in Paris were right,
and my father's troops would perhaps not have driven
me out. What can I think when I see that he allows all
this ! ' "

294 An Imperial Victim

In the small hours of the eventful 4th Joseph and
Jerome, with Feltre, the War Minister, rode off to see if
Orleans would do for the seat of the Regent's Govern-
ment. Joseph intended to go on to Fontainebleau to
communicate with his brother, but hearing that some of
the Allied troops lay on the road between them, he
hurried back to Blois. Then, with the War Minister and
fifty clerks, they tried to recruit fresh troops, and issued
an optimistic manifesto to the distant departments.

Blois was crammed, not a bed to be had, each house-
holder had taken in a guest, when on Wednesday, the
6th, the Ecole Polytechnique, that of St. Cyr and of
Charenton, came flying from Paris to add to the crowd
and confusion.

Marmont's defection at the critical moment had cast
the fatal die. The Czar refused Napoleon's abdication in
favour of his son, and Vicenza and his colleagues returned
to Fontainebleau, bringing only the Allies' demand for an
unconditional surrender. On the 6th the Bourbons were
recalled, and the exile to Elba was decreed.

Out of pity, the Empress had been kept in the dark ;
but when it was no longer possible to allow her to
remain in ignorance of what was passing in Paris, one of
her femmes rouges, Madame Durand, who had been left
behind in Paris, was implored on the 4th to convey
important despatches immediately to her mistress. The
devoted attendant obtained a passport, an order for an
escort if necessary, and, leaving Paris on the 6th, reached
Blois the next day. She brought newspapers and copies
of the decrees of the Provisional Government to show to
the Empress. " The Empress," she writes, uhad been
kept in such ignorance that she hardly believed what she
read. . . . She was besought and pressed to return to
Paris before the arrival of the Bourbon Princes. She was
assured of the Regency for herself and the throne for her

The Third Flight 295

son if she took this step — a matter easy enough, as the
lady in charge of the despatches had come in a postchaise
with only one servant, and without being even obliged to
show her passport."

Her conversation with Madame Durand had almost
won Marie Louise over to her views, when Dr. Corvisart
and the Duchesse de Montebello's opposite advice made
her veer round and change her mind. All through this
critical time the behaviour of these two intimates of the
Empress seems to throw some suspicion on their loyalty
to their master's cause. Bausset, too, intriguing under-
hand for an appointment at the Bourbon Court, and a
marquisate, was advising his mistress to return to Austria
and finish " sentimental nonsense " by " severing the bonds
of a conjugality7' which he considered as ended. On this
occasion, however, Joseph, Cambaceres, and the Council
of Regency added weight to the above counsel, and Marie
Louise lost the chance of repairing the error of her flight,
even if it was then not too late to do so.

Napoleon sent Colonel Galbois to announce his abdi-
cation to the Empress. With the utmost difficulty that
officer got through the enemies* lines and reached Blois
the same day as Madame Durand.

" I came early to Blois, and the Empress received me
at once. The Emperor's abdication surprised her very
much. She could not bring herself to believe that the
Allied Sovereigns intended to dethrone the Emperor
Napoleon.

" c My father,' she said, c would never allow it ; he has
told me twenty times, .when he placed me on the throne
of France, that he would always support me; and my
father is an honest man.*

" The Empress wished to be left alone to think over
the Emperor's letter. I then went to see the King of
Spain and the King of Westphalia. The former was very

296 An Imperial Victim

much upset ; the latter was very angry with Napoleon.
The Empress then sent for me again. She told me that
she wished to rejoin the Emperor. I informed her that
the thing was impossible. Then her Majesty replied
eagerly : c But why ? You are going to him, are you
not, M. le Colonel ? My place is with the Emperor at
a time when he must be very unhappy. 1 want to re-
join him, and I shall be all right provided I am with him.'

" I represented to the Empress that I had experienced
much difficulty in reaching her. In fact, everything on
the journey was dangerous. I had difficulty in persuading
her against it ; at last she decided to write to him.

" I returned safely to the Emperor. Napoleon read
the Empress's letter with avidity ; he seemed much struck
with the affectionate interest that the Princess showed him.
The Empress spoke of the possibility of collecting 1 50,000
men ; the Emperor read that part of the letter out to me,
and then uttered these remarkable words : c Yes, doubt-
less I could hold my own, and perhaps with success ; but
I should bring about civil war in France, and that I will
not do. Besides, I have signed my abdication, and I
will not go back on what I have signed.1 '

On the day that she received Durand and Galbois,
Marie Louise held her last Council, and issued the fol-
lowing proclamation :

11 IMPERIAL PALACE, BLOIS,

"April 7, 1814.

"FRENCHMEN !

" The chances of war have placed the capital in
the hands of the enemy. The Emperor, who rushed to
defend it, is at the head of his armies, so often victorious ;
they are facing the enemy under the walls of Paris. It
is from the residence I have chosen, and from the
Emperor's ministers, that will proceed the only orders
which you may recognise.

The Third Flight 299

" Every city in the power of the enemy ceases to be
free ; any orders which emanate from them are those of
the foreigner, or are those which it suits his hostile views
to propagate.

"You will be faithful to your vows. You will hearken
to the voice of a Princess who was confided to your good
faith, who glories in being French, and in being associated
with the fate of a ruler whom you have freely chosen.

" My son was less sure of your affections in the days
of our prosperity. His rights and his person are in your
safe-keeping.

" MARIE LOUISE/*

This highly coloured version of facts was the only act
of the Regent and her Council while at Blois. Its appeal
fell utterly flat, because it was not backed up by any
armed force.

There is no doubt that, at this moment, Marie Louise
had no idea of separating from Napoleon. General
Segur writes : u Madame de Lu$ay, my mother-in-law,
bedchamber woman to the Empress Marie Louise, was a
model of conjugal affection. Twice during the Terror
she had saved her husband's life, risking her own with a
most devoted courage and cleverness. Full of the sweet
and gentle virtues which distinguished good society at
the end of the eighteenth century, she had just succeeded
in persuading the Empress to leave Blois for Fontaine-
bleau. Secrecy was, however, unfortunately indispensable
to enable her to carry out such a sacred duty. The
carriage ordered to convey her away was standing waiting
at the foot of a secret staircase, when another personage,
whose malevolent influence had too long and too entirely
controlled the Empress's weak mind, suddenly had herself
announced. Instantly the Empress, embarrassed by this
unexpected incident, hurriedly sent her bedchamber
i— 1 8

300 An Imperial Victim

woman into an adjacent dressing-room. Thence, my
mother-in-law was shortly able to hear only too distinctly
with what perfidious art the noble and generous decision
which she had evoked was hopelessly broken down and
altered into the most lamentable defection."

While Marie Louise was thus a prey to conflicting
emotions, torn between duty and opportunism, swayed
about first by one set of advisers and then by another,
a hostage, as it were, to be used alternately by either
party of her household, who, however, were chiefly intent
on saving their own skins, yet a third faction attempted
to secure her for their own ends.

Russian troops were approaching Blois, and it was no
longer a safe residence for the fugitive Court. Their
vicinity gave an excuse to her brothers-in-law, trembling
for their own fate, to suggest that the Empress and her
son should retire beyond the Loire, where they proposed
to raise the standard of the Napoleonic cause, an act
which would have plunged France into the chaos of
civil war.

The story of the attempted abduction is told by
Madame Durand, who was in waiting in the Empress's
private apartments.

At eight o'clock in the morning two carnages drew
up at the Prefecture. Kings Joseph and Jerome entered
their sister-in-law's room, shouting :

" c Madame, you must come with us ! '

" c I am very well here. Where do you wish to take
me?*

" c That is what we cannot tell you/ " replied Jerome.

She asked if they had Napoleon's orders, and they
replied that they had not.

" < In that case I shall not go.'

" ' We will force you to ! ' " cried Jerome.

Marie Louise burst into tears. They seized her by

The Third Flight

the waist, and tried to drag her to the door. She
screamed for help.

D'Haussonville, the Chamberlain, and General Caf-
farelli, and Bausset, the prefet of the palace, run in.
CafFarelli peremptorily tells Joseph and Jerome to stay
their violence, and Marie Louise implores him to see
if the guard will protect her.

D'Haussonville runs in such a hurry that he tumbles
down the steps into the courtyard, where the officers
of the guard are walking about waiting for breakfast
Amid great enthusiasm for the Empress, they swear to
defend her. D'Haussonville returns : " The guard is at
your Majesty's orders."

Joseph and Jerome retire silently. They wished to
remove the Empress to Bourges, the Auvergnat, or the
Limousin as a hostage, and to join the army of Spain.
Louis took no part in this scene, being occupied with his
Pascal devotions.

Bausset also tells his version of this mysterious inci-
dent, which he took care to turn to suit his own ends.
For Bausset, like several others, was sitting on a rail.

" At eight o'clock in the morning of April 8 I had
betaken myself to the palace of Blois, according to my
custom, as much to look after my own department as
to get news from the Emperor's headquarters. I was
told that the Princes Joseph and Jerome and Cambaceres
had come in, and that they were conferring with the
Empress in her drawing-room. The hour was somewhat
early for the Empress's habits, and I tried to find out
what was going on, when one of her women came to tell
me that Her Majesty wished to speak to me at once.
I was shown into a room inside her apartments, which
opened on one side into her bedroom, and on the other
into her drawing-room. Having been informed that I
was awaiting her orders, she was pleased to come to me.

302 An Imperial Victim

I noticed that her appearance was more animated than
ordinarily, and that the usually sweet and quiet expression
of her face was distinctly changed. From the simple
ntgligt of her toilette I concluded that she had just got
out of her bed at the moment when the Princes, her
brothers-in-law, had asked to speak to her.

"* M. de Bausset/ Her Majesty said to me, * among
the officers of the Emperor's household who are here,
you are my oldest acquaintance, as it dates from Braunau
at the time of my marriage. ... I rely on your fidelity,
and I am going to tell you what is going on here. . . .
My two brothers-in-law and the Arch-Chancellor are in
that drawing-room. They have just told me that I
must leave Blois instantly, and that if I do not agree
to do so with a good grace they will have me and my
son carried into the carriage.'

" * May I be permitted to inquire what is Your
Majesty's personal wish ? '

" * I wish to remain here and await the Emperor's
letter,' replied the Empress.

" ' If such is your wish, madame, I dare to reply to
Your Majesty that all the officers of the household and
of the guard will think as I do, that we have to receive
orders from her alone. I ask leave of Your Majesty to
go and acquaint them with your intentions.' '

He left the Empress's apartments, and the first person
he met was Comte d'Haussonville, the Chamberlain, and
General CafFarelli, the Empress's aide-de-camp. Very
much upset by what he had heard, Bausset hastily told
them all.

" * We mustn't stand this ! ' cried the impetuous
d'Haussonville, and as he spoke, he ran in such haste
to the portico of the palace that he fell down the steps,
shouting to the officers of the guard who were walking
about in the courtyard waiting for breakfast.

The Third Flight 303

" All were at once impressed, and gathered round us,
agreeing with us, and anxious at once to lay at the
Empress's feet the expression of their fidelity."

Bausset begged a servant to inform the Empress and
ask for an audience, and acquainted her with the explosion
of feeling which had taken place. The Empress asked
him to accompany her to the drawing-room and to report
to the Princes what he had told her. He told them that,
when the officers of the household and the guard had
learnt that it was a question of using force to Her
Majesty against her will, that they had declared they
would oppose it, and only take orders from her.

" ' Tell me the words they used/ said King Joseph.
* It is necessary for us to know the feeling that actuates
them/

" c Their words would not be pleasant hearing/ replied
Bausset ; ' and besides, the noise I hear in the adjoining
room will make Your Majesty better acquainted with
them/

" Hardly had I finished speaking when the doors
of the drawing-room were violently opened, and all the
officers gave vent to the feelings which I had ascribed
to them.

" ' You must remain, madame/ said Prince Joseph,
with indescribable sweetness. ' What I had proposed
to Your Majesty seemed to me to suit your interests
best. But if she judges otherwise, I repeat, we must
remain.'

" The Empress in these circumstances/' adds Bausset,
" acted alone, without consulting her Council, and on her
own inspiration."

Thus, and for the second time, did Marie Louise
decline to kindle the flame of civil war in France.

Three hours after this scene, Blois was suddenly
invaded by a new and weird form of soldier never yet

3°4 An Imperial Victim

seen about the old streets of the historic town. In wide
blue trousers and tunics and great stiff black leather
belts, sitting straight in their high saddles as if standing
up to strike with their long lances, a band of Cossacks
under Count Schouvaloff, sent by Schwarzenberg, arrived,
ostensibly to secure the Empress's safety.

It was the beginning of the end. Henceforth Marie
Louise was virtually the prisoner of her husband's
enemies.

CHAPTER XVIII

IN THE CRUCIBLE

EVERY diplomatic effort was being made in Paris
to prevent Marie Louise from joining Napoleon.
The royalists were anxious as to what she would do.
They wanted her neither in Paris nor at Elba, where they
feared that she might be instrumental in reconciling her
husband and her father. The day after SchouvalofFs
arrival she arranged to start on the morrow for Orleans and
Fontainebleau. But Schouvaloff told Meneval privately
that she was to go to Rambouillet and not to Fontainebleau.
By Schouvaloff 's arrival the net had been securely flung
over her. But it had been flung further afield than she
realised.

Though the Kaiser, for decency's sake, had advanced
personally no farther on Paris than Dijon, so as not to
appear to bring about his daughter's ruin, Schwarzenberg,
his Commander-in-Chief, was in Paris, and through him
Franz was in thrall to the Allies. But his own wife was
helping to tighten the net over her unhappy step-daughter.
We know how she hated Napoleon, we have seen how
jealousy made her extend that hatred to his wife. Schwar-
zenberg had won over the Duchesse, Corvisart the doctor,
and most of the few intimates who possessed the Empress's
confidence. Champagny, writes Madam eDurand, carried
to Schwarzenberg news of her wish to rejoin her husband.
For Marie Louise was struggling in the meshes.

305

306 An Imperial Victim

" When she heard," writes the son of her chamberlain,
d'Haussonville, " that Napoleon had been given the king-
dom of Elba, she inquired about her new abode. She
sent for Madame de Brignole, one of her ladies who was
a Genoese, and had lived for some time in the island, and
asked all sorts of questions about the climate, the inhabit-
ants, the resources. She did not seem to imagine for a
moment that she could have any other place of residence
than that of her husband, or any future but his. Her
tone was not only what was proper with reference to
Napoleon, but even lofty. ... My father was convinced
that she was speaking in good faith and did not contem-
plate separating her fortunes from him whom she has
since so completely forgotten ! "

" Every one," writes Madame Durand, " advised Marie
Louise not to rejoin Napoleon, except one who said to
her : c I am perhaps the only person who is not betraying

I

On the same day as her brother-in-laws' attempt, the
same day that the Cossacks closed around her, the unhappy
Empress made yet another tentative to follow her duty
and her inclination. Mindful of Bausset's loyal assistance
in the emergency of the early morning, she sent for him
again before dinner.

<c ( Will you do me yet another service ? ' said the
Princess, with such a touching charm that I was quite
moved by it.

<c c Command me, madame, and I answer for my-
self/

« < Very well. You will leave to-night for Paris.
You will doubtless find there the Emperor, my father,
and you will give him the letter I am about to write.
You will then betake yourself to Fontainebleauwith another
letter for the Emperor Napoleon. I hope, on my part, to
go there myself, for I ought, and I wish, to be beside him.

you'

In the Crucible 30?

Make your arrangements and come at eight o'clock this
evening to fetch my despatches.' '

Bausset left Blois at 1 1 a.m., having heard privately
from SchouvalofF that the Empress would not be allowed
to go to Fontainebleau. Passing safely through the lines
of the enemy round Paris, he reached the city at 2 a.m.
to find his rooms occupied by Russian officers and
privates.

In the morning he went to Schwarzenberg's house and
saw Metternich and Castlereagh drive up to it in a post-
chaise — the first meeting of the three heads of the Allies.
Amid the crowd in Schwarzenberg's rooms Metternich
spied him, for Bausset had a commanding figure — " the
only one of us," said Napoleon, " who did not grow any
thinner during the Russian campaign." He came up to
inquire after the Empress's health. Bausset begged for
permission to get her letter through to her father.
Metternich asked for it, saying that, as the Kaiser was still
at Troyes, it would save time if he saw it. Bausset
declined to give it up. Metternich told him that he was
wrong, for that very evening the ministers of Napoleon
and those of the Allies were about to settle the fate of
the Imperial family, and that the Empress's letter might
influence the Czar favourably.

Whereupon Bausset went to Caulaincourt, Napoleon's
minister of Foreign Affairs, and asked leave to show
fyletternich the letter. Caulaincourt gave permission, and
Metternich, after perysing it, was of opinion it might have
a good effect, and told Bausset to return at eleven p.m.
to hear the result of the diplomatic conference.

Bausset then went on to Talleyrand and saw something
of that statesman's change of coat, and also of the muta-
tions of several other officials in whose loyalty he had
trusted. At the hour appointed he came back to
Schwarzenberg's house and Metternich came up to him

308 An Imperial Victim

and informed him that Napoleon had abdicated, accepting
the sovereignty of the island of Elba, but retaining his title,
and that the King of Rome was to be Prince of Parma
and his mother's heir.

" I left for Fontainebleau," writes Bausset, " at two in
the morning. It was nine o'clock when I reached the
palace. I was at once shown in to the Emperor, to whom
I presented the Empress's letter.

" 1 Good Louise ! ' he said, after perusing it. He
thereupon asked me many questions about her health,
and that of his son. I begged him to honour me with
a reply, and expressed to him my wish to carry back with
me this comfort to the Empress, whose heart needed it so
much.

<c c Stay here to-day, and to-morrow I will give you
my letter.'

" I found Napoleon calm, quiet, and confident. His
soul was strongly tempered. Never, perhaps, had he
seemed to me so great. I talked to him about the
island of Elba ; he already knew that this little principality
would be given to him. He pointed out to me on
the table a geographical and statistical book which con-
tained all the details he wished to ascertain about his
residence.

c< ' The climate is healthy,' he said to me, ' and the
natives are excellent. I shall not be so badly off there,
and I hope Marie Louise will not think herself so badly
off either.'

aHe was not aware of the obstacles which had just
been placed to their reunion at the palace of Fontainebleau,
but he flattered himself that, once in possession of the
Duchy of Parma, the Empress would be allowed to come
with her son, and settle herself with him in the island
of Elba. . . . He flattered himself! He was never
again to see these objects of his most tender affection. . . ."

In the Crucible 309

At two o'clock the Emperor, walking alone on the
terrace in front of the Galerie Frai^ois II., sent again
for Bausset to question him about the events he had
seen.

" He was far from approving the decision which had
been taken of making the Empress quit Paris. I spoke
to him of the letters to his brother Joseph.

" c The circumstances were no longer the same,'
he replied. c It was necessary to decide according to
the new circumstances. The mere presence of Louise
in Paris would have been sufficient to prevent or hinder
the treachery and defection of some of my troops. I
should still be at the head of a redoubtable army, with
which I should have forced the enemy to evacuate Paris
and to sign an honourable peace.' '

The interview lasted for two hours. A day or two
before the rumour ran that Napoleon had attempted
suicide, but now he said to Bausset, with a sigh : cc I
am a man condemned to live ! "

A few more turns on the terrace followed, in deep,
sad silence. " Between ourselves," added the Emperor,
with a bitter smile, c{ they say a live gudgeon is worth
more than a dead Emperor ! "

With the arrival at Blois of Schouvaloff and his
Cossacks the rats began to leave the sinking ship. He
put up at the inn of La Galere, and all the rest of the
day it was crowded with people flocking to have their
passports vise. All the principal members of her Council
and of her household left the Empress — Regent she
was no longer.

One after another she received those who came to
say farewell. Yet even at this harassing moment her
natural generosity and kindliness did not forsake her.
She gave away no less than ^12,000 to her household,
Court, and domestics, before leaving for Orleans; but

An Imperial Victim

she appeared too stunned by her calamities to be really
astonished at the falling away around her.

Another night, that of April 8, was again spent in
packing, like the fateful last night in Paris only twelve
days ago. How much had happened since then !

Meneval spent the time in burning the family papers
and despatches which Napoleon had ordered him to carry
away from the Tuileries. Very early on the 8th he
came to the Empress's rooms and found her very uneasy
about her own jewels and the crown diamonds ; for
the Queen of Westphalia, in travelling from Paris, had
been robbed of her jewels and money, and Marie Louise
knew that she would have to pass through Cossack
outposts.

She sent for the diamonds and decided, for safety,
to wear them herself; but there arose a dilemma over
the famous Pitt Diamond. This gem, brought from India
by Chatham's grandfather, had been bought by the Regent
Philippe Egalite, but had gone astray during the Revolu-
tion. When found by the Imperial Government, Napoleon
had had the great diamond set in the hilt of the Sword of
State. To carry this weapon about with her without its
attracting notice was out of the question. The idea struck
Marie Louise that, in order to secrete it, Meneval might
separate the hilt from the blade. Not having any tool
at hand with which to do this, he proceeded to snap
it off over one of the firedogs in the Empress's fireplace,
and then fearfully hid the precious blade under his coat.

This done, the Empress had a hurried breakfast,
alone with the Duchesse de Montebello, as was usually
the case. A hard-hearted remark dropped by the latter
showed the real feeling of this treacherous friend towards
the unhappy mistress who placed so much trust in her.

"How I long for this all to end!" exclaimed
Madame de Montebello. "How I wish to be quietly

In the Crucible 311

at home with my children in my little house Rue
d'Enfer ! "

ct What you tell me, Duchesse, is very cruel ! " replied
poor Marie Louise, tears in her eyes. But she made
no other reproach.

The Duchesse went on to inform her that on no
account should she, the Duchesse, go to Elba ; and
indeed, as we have seen, she was taking steps to prevent
her mistress going there, and thus to avoid having to
follow her thither.

The Empress, with her accompanying Kings and
Queens, Madame Mere, and a sadly thinned retinue, left
Blois, passing through rows of sad and silent spectators,
and escorted by the troops of the Imperial Guard. At
Augerville, however, the procession was suddenly sur-
rounded by four thousand Cossacks, whose ferocious
attitude spread consternation till it was discovered that
they were sent by SchouvalofF, ostensibly as an additional
escort. But their presence belied his words, for it
showed plainly that he had orders to cut off any communi-
cation with Fontainebleau, and to prevent any attempt
on the part of the Empress to rejoin Napoleon.

The first part of the journey was performed in safety;
but at Beaugency the Cossacks lived up to the character
they had earned during their advance through Eastern
France, for the rearguard fell upon some of the hind-
most carriages and pillaged the ladies' hats and caps, and
only the appearance of SchouvalofFs aide-de-camp re-
stored order and made them disgorge the articles they
had taken.

Orleans was neither Imperialist nor Royalist. On
Easter Day the Domum salvum fac imperatorum was not
sung in the cathedral ; but neither was the Domum salvum
fac regem. The city was crowded with troops of every
kind without leaders, and with leaders without troops.

312 An Imperial Victim

The Due de Rovigo regretted that these had not been
swept together to add to the defence of Paris.

The gates were barricaded, and guns were mounted
on the ramparts. The Empress, at her entry, was still
received as a sovereign. The garrison and the National
Guard lined the streets, and the crowd cheered her :
" Vive 1'Empereur ! Vive I'lmperatrice ! " The civil
and military authorities received her and conducted her
to the palace of the Bishop, where she stayed. All night
long, beneath her windows, rang these familiar cheers for
the last time !

Next day the little King of Rome, dressed in blue
velvet and a peaked black velvet cap, might have been
seen in the courtyard of the palace, playing at a review,
with a bayonet stuck in the ground, and waving a sword.
The Comtesse de Montesquieu allowed the passers-by to
come into the courtyard and see him.

At Orleans the Due de Cadore met the Empress with
the reply to the letter she had sent by him to the Kaiser,
and which he had only delivered after a long chase,
for Franz, for appearance' sake, was " lying low " at
Dijon. This reply gave Marie Louise cold comfort.
It was evasive, for, while protesting his good-will and
affection, her father doubted if the Allies shared his
zeal for the interests and rights of his daughter.

To add to the depression caused by this letter, the
Comte de Saint Aulaire came bringing her another from
the Kaiser which told her of the Emperor's attempt at
suicide. With reference to his reception by the Empress
Saint Aulaire tells a story which is not so incredible as
might appear at first blush. He was admitted, he says,
to her presence in a hurry, early in the morning, to
find Marie Louise half out of bed, a bare foot peeping
from beneath the bedclothes.

Oppressed with the grave news he brought, Saint

In the Crucible 3!3

Aulaire dared not look her in the face as he told it,
anxious not to increase her trouble. He bent his eyes on
the ground, and the Empress, he says, thinking he was
looking at her foot, remarked : " I am always told I have
a pretty foot ! "

Marie Louise's detractors quote this anecdote as a
mark of her heartlessness and frivolity. But she was no
coquette, at all events not in those days, and many who
have gone through moments of great mental strain can
remember how often, under such circumstances, the mind
seems stunned, as it were, unable to grasp anything but
irrelevant or trivial details. When we consider what
Marie Louise had undergone during the last few weeks,
we can well imagine what a paralysing effect this news
of the despair to which Napoleon was reduced must
have had upon her. The result was the very natural
one of increasing her overmastering desire to rejoin him.

u Escaping from advice out of tune with the thoughts
which obsessed her, she rushed, half-dressed, out of her
dressing-room across a balcony which separated her
room from that of her son, and, throwing herself into the
arms of Madame de Montesquieu, whom she so much
respected, she fortified herself in her resolve to go to
Fontainebleau. She even ordered preparations to be
made for her departure, and Montesquiou and Durand
backed up her decision."

But the opposition, in the shape of the Duchesse,
won the day. She was jealous of the noble-minded
Comtesse de Montesquiou, whose devotion increased
with misfortune, and who offered to follow her precious
charge to Elba. Marie Louise was pointed out the
difficulties and dangers of the journey, and persuaded to
await Bausset's return with the replies to the letters.

A letter which now arrived from Metternich supported
Montebello. He wrote that the Empress would soon

An Imperial Victim

hear that her father was doing his best for her ; he told
her that she was eventually to be an independent ruler,
but that, for the present, she had better retire to
Austria and choose between Napoleon and her own
establishment. He added that her father was but too
willing to help to dry the tears she had only too much
reason to shed — that, for the time being, she would be
quiet and free in Austria, and that she could take with
her those in whom she had most confidence. Two
Austrian noblemen with whom she was well acquainted,
Prince Paul Esterhazy and Prince Wenzel Lichtenstein,
were ordered to escort her to Rambouillet to her father.

All this Marie Louise passed on to Napoleon, de-
ploring the haste with which her fate was being decided,
and adding : " I live but in tears ! "

From Orleans M£neval maintained a regular corre-
spondence two or three times a day with Baron Fain, who
had replaced him as private secretary with Napoleon.
The latter repeatedly inquired if Marie Louise's intention
was to join him, or her father, or if she wished to go to
her own States, which latter plan seemed to appeal to him
most. His wishes were that his wife and child should
join him at Briare, and that they should travel together
by the Mont Cenis to Parma, where Marie Louise could
rest while he went on to Elba to prepare to receive her
there. He was particularly anxious as to who would
have charge of the King of Rome, suggesting that
Madame de Bombers be asked to undertake the post
if the Comtesse de Montesquieu wished to return to
Paris — an idea which the devoted " Maman 'Quiou"
indignantly repelled. He gave elaborate instructions as
to the Empress's household and journey.

This affectionate consideration only distraught Marie
Louise still more.

" I am really very much to be pitied/' she said to

In the Crucible 315

Rovigo. " Some advise me to go, others to remain. I
write to the Emperor and he does not give a direct reply
to what I ask. He tells me to write to my father. Ah !
my father ! What will he say to me after the affronts
which he has allowed to be heaped upon me? I am
abandoned, and I fling myself upon Providence ! God
indeed inspired me wisely when He imbued me with the
idea of becoming a canoness. I should have done much
better than to have come to this country ! . . . To go
to the Emperor. . . . But I cannot leave without my son,
whose guardian I am. . . . On the other hand, if the
Emperor fears an attempt upon his life, as is probable,
and if he should be obliged to escape, the burden I should
be to him might cause him to fall into his enemies' hands,
who, there is no manner of doubt, desire his ruin. I
don't know what to decide ! I only live in tears."
And, indeed her face was bathed. Then she spoke of her
father, whose abandonment seemed so cruel, adding, with
a touching humbleness : " I understand that the people
of this country dislike me, and yet it is not my fault.
But why did my father have me married if he had the
projects he is now carrying out ? "

Napoleon, through Fain, sent orders and arrangements
with respect to the disposal of the household, the treasure,
and the sums that were to be given to his family, now
entirely dependent on him. The ministers and officials
took what was owing to them, the troops were paid up,
and ,£40,000 sent to Napoleon for his journey.

But the Provisional Government wanted money, and
swooped down upon the Empress at Orleans in the shape
of a vulgar personage, one Dudon, maitre des requetes,
who rummaged in the carriages and everywhere, seizing
everything he could lay hands on, on the pretext that
it was the Emperor's. For, when the Provisional
Government sent to the Tuileries on April 7, they
1—19

316 An Imperial Victim

found the treasury chests empty, the inventory books
vanished, and the strong boxes which had contained the
crown diamonds had nothing in them. All had been
carried off. Now they had received information of the
whereabouts of the treasure, and sent to seize it.

Dudon laid hold of what he could find of the
j£ 700,000, which were the Emperor's own private
savings, as well as his personal jewelry and linen — even
his handkerchiefs marked " N." He took likewise the
Empress's plate and dinner-service, leaving her not a knife
or fork or plate to eat with, and Marie Louise had to
borrow from the Bishop, her host, before she could dine.

She was quite innocent of the pillage of the forty
million francs with which she had reached Blois. She
had kept very little for herself, except what she had
already spent when the treasure was taken from her.
The diplomatic corps in Paris had their share of the
spoil — Metternich, Talleyrand, Castlereagh, Wellington.
Metternich likewise secured ,£4,000 for his friend, the
Queen of Naples, who had already been paid up by
Napoleon along with his other brothers and sisters.

Dudon now demanded the crown jewels. In dis-
cussing them with the lady-in-waiting who had charge
of them, he asked for a certain necklace, a single row
of diamonds, worth £200,000, which Napoleon had
given the Empress after the birth of the King of Rome.
The official in charge of the Imperial Treasury had never
claimed this as crown property, but Dudon did. At that
moment the necklace in question was on Marie Louise's
own neck. The lady went to her in the drawing-room,
where many people were surrounding her ; at the first
word of explanation Marie Louise tore off the necklace,
exclaiming : " Give it back, and say no more about the
matter ! "

All the crown diamonds were restored, and were

In the Crucible 317

found to be correct according to the inventory, except
the " Regent." Then there was a hue and cry for the
great gem, for no one, of course, except the Empress
and Meneval, knew where it was. At last it came to
her ears that it was being asked for. She quietly took
it out of her work-bag and gave it up.

Along with the crown jewels went all Marie Louise's
personal jewelry. In vain her household expostulated
and appealed to Schouvaloff ; he would not interfere.
This incident of the jewels reflects but little credit upon
the Provisional Government.

The extra carriages now no longer required were sent
to Tours, the coronation coach to Chambord.

After Mass on Monday, with a face bathed in tears,
the Empress received at the same time the adieux of the
remaining courtiers who had stayed with her, and their
congratulations on being made Duchess of Parma. The
following day she found herself, with her boy, almost
alone in the Bishop's palace, save for Men6val and two
or three ladies, including the Duchesse, who longed for
peace and quiet. She also, that evening, bade a farewell,
that in many cases was a final one, to her husband's
family, who were hurriedly dispersing to various havens
of refuge across the frontier.

Bausset left Fontainebleau that night and reached
Orleans twelve hours later. He informed the Empress
that he had carried out her orders, and gave her
Napoleon's reply. She approved of his having shown
Metternich her letter to her father.

On the 1 2th she sent off by Isabey, to Napoleon,
a portrait of herself and the King of Rome. On bidding
the painter farewell she gave him some of her own
sketches and a little note-book bound in morocco, with
corners and clasps of chased gold, and wrote in her own
hand on the first page : " Given to Isabey April 20,

3i 8 An Imperial Victim

1814, by one of his pupils, who will always be grateful
for the trouble he has taken about her. Louise."

On April 1 1, Marie Louise, with her sadly attenuated
train, left Orleans. His grandmother clasped the little
King in her arms. Before getting into the carriage,
Marie Louise turned to the old lady : " Madame, I hope
you will always retain the kind feelings with which you
have hitherto honoured me.'* " That will depend on
yourself," replied the somewhat £ dour ' Letaetia, " and
upon your conduct in the future ! " The Empress
travelled under the escort of Schouvaloff and of her
own cavalry of the Imperial Guard. But at Augerville
these were suddenly replaced by Cossacks " brandishing
their long spears around us as if we were a convoy of
prisoners," writes Bausset.

Napoleon, no longer contemplating suicide, but
longing for his wife and son, and mindful that Marie
Louise had written dreading the insecurity of the roads,
sent General Cambronne and two battalions of the Guards
to fetch her to Fontainebleau. General Cambronne reached
Orleans on the i3th — two days too late !

Wearied out in mind and body Marie Louise drove
into the gates of Rambouillet between Russian sentries,
only to find that she had been hurried thither needlessly.
The Kaiser was not expected there yet !

Though tired to death, she wrote to her father before
going to bed : " This cause alone [the wish to see him
after such a long separation] has made me decide to come
here, and prevented my going at once join the Emperor
at Fontainebleau."

She spent three days, a veritable prisoner, now pacing
up and down her rooms in feverish impatience, now
sitting motionless and crushed, weeping floods of tears.
Queen Hortense came to see her from Malmaison, where
she had taken refuge with her mother, but brought no

In the Crucible 319

comfort. Marie Louise perceived that Josephine's
daughter already looked with suspicion upon her for not
having rejoined Napoleon.

On the 1 6th Franz drove into Rambouillet in a plain
open chaise. He was attended only by Metternich, come
to rivet the fetters he had forged. The Empress, with
her boy and her few followers, met him in the courtyard
on the last step. Marie Louise, at sight of her father,
burst into tears, and, before she kissed him, took the child
from Madame de Montesquiou and almost threw him
into his grandfather's arms. Franz, deeply moved, clasped
the grandson whom he now saw for the first time.

The Empress barely took time to present her house-
hold, and father and daughter passed quickly into her
private rooms. The Kaiser was as distressed as was
Marie Louise. The King of Rome was taken back to his
nursery. A very quick child for his age, the vicissitudes
of the last few weeks had greatly sharpened his intellect.
To M£n£val he had accused Louis XVIII. of having
" taken the place of Papa," Bliicher of being his
greatest enemy, and both of having taken away his toys.
His grandfather's long, pale, solemn face did not impress
the King of Rome. <c I've now seen the Emperor of
Austria," he remarked to u Maman 'Quiou," " and he is
not handsome ! "

Long were father and daughter closeted together, in
tears. a As my daughter," he said to her, "all I have is
yours — my blood, my life ! As a sovereign, I do not
know you ! "

He sent for the little King again, and, looking lovingly
at him, remarked that he resembled his mother. " It is
indeed my blood that flows in his veins."

When they were again alone together, the urgent
question of Marie Louise's destination was discussed.
She said that she would prefer to stay in Italy and await

320 An Imperial Victim

the moment to rejoin Napoleon ; that Corvisart had
ordered her the waters of Aix-les-Bains, but that the other
doctors did not agree with him. Not admitting any
possibility of a long separation, she wished to divide her
time between Parma and Elba.

But Franz had promised Metternich to steel himself,
and not to yield ; he insisted upon a return to Schonbriinn,
at all events temporarily. To the Allies he had ejacu-
lated : u God grant that Napoleon be sent far off! " and
Elba he thought too near. " Austria is without bowels ! "
Napoleon had said to Caulaincourt.

Franz told his daughter that he had been made the
guardian of his grandson, who was to succeed to Elba,
but at his death it was to return to Tuscany. All this
discussion was terribly painful to poor broken-down
Marie Louise, who, writes her secretary, would now and
and again retire to her room, and sitting, " her elbows on
her knees, her head in her hands, give way to the bitter-
ness of her thoughts and abundant tears."

From Rambouillet the Kaiser wrote an oily, treacher-
ous letter to " the Emperor," his " dear son-in-law,
informing him that the Empress's health had suffered
exceedingly, and that he had therefore suggested to her
to spend some months in the bosom of her family."
Napoleon, he thought, was too considerate of her happi-
ness not to agree. cc When recovered, she could go to
her own States, near Your Majesty. It is superfluous
to say that her son will form part of my family, and that
I will share his mother's care of him while with me."

The Kaiser stayed at Rambouillet that night and till
late next evening. When he left an Austrian guard
replaced the Russian, and Marie Louise had agreed to go
to Vienna !

Meanwhile, two loving and faithful women had been
to Fontainebleau, each imploring leave to go with Napoleon

In the Crucible 321

to Elba. One was Mile Georges, the actress, the early
love of his consular days, the other, the Comtesse
Walewski, the beautiful blonde Pole he had known and
loved in Warsaw, the mother of his son, waited on that
pouring night of April 1 1 in an antechamber. Napoleon
declined to see either of them !

With a refinement of cruelty Marie Louise's other two
captors came down toRambouillet to gloat over their victim.
The first was the Czar, inviting himself to dejeuner on the
1 5th. " Le roi galant's " visit was doubtless not entirely
actuated by political motives ; he was probably curious
to see the handsome young woman who had secured such
a lasting hold on Napoleon's affections. Alexander was
now five-and-thirty, " but looked younger, was tall, well
made, good-looking, with a gentle, yet imposing manner/'
Bausset relates that he was so pleasant " that we could
hardly believe what had passed in Paris."

The Czar apologized for his visit as being paid at
the Kaiser's desire, and he proffered sympathy and
devotion. Marie Louise was cold, but polite ; she did
not at all want to see him, blaming him for all her
troubles, and unaware that, but for him, Napoleon
would have been sent to the Azores. Alexander, on his
side, " could read in her face, which for the last twenty
days had been watered with tears, the effect his presence
produced." He did not know that she was aware of all
that had gone on in Paris both before and after his
reception of the Marshals ; but " she knew all that had
been planned against her husband, and must indeed have
been thoroughly mistress of herself to keep her counten-
ance in front of the author of all the miseries which
overwhelmed her."

After breakfast Alexander asked to see the boy :
" M. de Bausset, will you conduct me to the King of
Rome ? "

322 An Imperial Victim

" Having sent to inform Madame de Montesquiou,
I preceded him to his Majesty's apartments. He kissed
and caressed and examined the beautiful child, and said
some flattering things to Madame de Montesquiou."

Next day appeared another inquisitive, and much
less agreeable visitor, his Majesty of Prussia, alone with
an aide-de-camp. Happily he did not inflict Marie
Louise with his presence at any meal ; but, though not
so genial as the fascinating Alexander, he too asked to
see the little King, and kissed him.

Queen Hortense came down to Rambouillet to see
Marie Louise : " but, as I was an embarrassment rather
than a consolation to the Empress, I left her."

The devoted young wife of Lord Burghersh, British
military attache to the allied armies, who had just accom-
panied her husband through the hardships and perils of the
campaign, was now with him in Paris. Lord Burghersh
had been appointed to attend Napoleon to Elba. "It
will be just like guarding a wild beast," writes his wife ;
but he declined, on finding that he would be expected to
remain in the island. " To-day," writes Lady Burghersh
to her mother, " Prince Esterhazy and Wenzel Lichten-
stein returned from Fontainebleau (sic} where they had
been sent by the Emperor of Austria to Marie Louise.
They dined with us to-day, and gave me an account
of her. She cried very much, but consented to leave
Napoleon, for which I think she is a monster, for she
certainly pretended to love him, and he always behaved
well to her. She said she would not see him before
he goes, for if she saw him, and that he asked her to
come with him, she knew she could not refuse him ; but
that to obey her father, and for the good of her child,
she agreed to go to Vienna. She showed them the King
of Rome, and they say he is the most beautiful child they
ever saw. She is to have the Duchy of Parma and

In the Crucible 323

Guastalla. I think it quite disgusting in her to abandon
him in his misfortunes, after pretending at least to
idolize him."

In after-years, in Italy, Lady Burghersh became one
of Marie Louise's greatest friends, and much modified
her opinion about her. " The Empress told her how,
before Napoleon left for the last campaign, he enjoined
his wife to be guided in everything by his brother
Joseph ; and it was in consequence of this order that
she obeyed Joseph's advice to leave Paris, though her
own wish was to remain there ; and she believed that,
had she done so, better terms could have been made for
her and her son. When the catastrophe came she was
undoubtedly the victim of cruel deceptions. She wished
to join Napoleon at Elba, but was put off on various
pretexts."

When Napoleon heard of these visits of the Czar and
the Prussian King he was much annoyed, and thought
they both showed very bad taste. He still hoped and
trusted his wife would rejoin him ; but, as soon as he
heard that she had seen her father at Rambouillet, he
realized that she was no longer a free agent — the victim,
not the accomplice, of the coalition. The day before
he started for Elba, at the moment when she was
receiving the Czar's unwelcome politeness, he wrote her
a most affectionate letter. It shows that he was unaware
that Corvisart was one of those working to separate
them. The latter, against the opinion of all the other
doctors, was insisting upon a c< cure " at Aix :

"MA BONNE LOUISE,

<c I have received your letter, which shows me of
all your troubles, which increase mine. I am pleased
to see that Corvisart cheers you. I am infinitely obliged
to him ; he justifies by this noble conduct the good

324 An Imperial Victim

opinion I have always had of him. Tell him so from me,
and ask him to send me frequently a little report of your
health. Try to go at once to the waters of Aix, which
I hear Corvisart has ordered for you. Get well, keep
your health for me, and for your son, who needs your
care. I am starting for the island of Elba, whence I will
write to you. I will do everything to get ready to
receive you. Write to me often. Address your letters
to the Viceroy, your uncle, if, as they say, he is made
Grand-duke of Tuscany. Adieu, ma bonne Louise"

Next day, on the morning of his early departure, he
wrote again :

" MA BONNE AMIE,

" I am off to-night to sleep at Brienne. I shall
leave to-morrow morning, and not stop again till
S. Tropez. Bausset, who will bring you this letter,
will give you my news, and will tell you that I am well.
I hope your health will soon improve, and that you
will come and join me. Montesquieu, who left at two
o'clock this morning, should have arrived. I had no
news of you yesterday, but I hope that the' prefet du
Calais will rejoin me this evening and give me some.
Adieu, ma bonne Louise. You can always count upon
the courage, the calmness, and the affection of your
husband Napoleon. A kiss to the little King.'*

On writing this he remarked to Caulaincourt :
" Providence has willed it — I shall live. Beside, my
wife and my son are enough for me. I shall see them ;
I hope I shall see them often. When they are sure that
I do not want to leave my retreat, they will allow me to
receive them, perhaps to visit them."

When Napoleon knew that the Empress was at

In the Crucible 325

Rambouillet, he quite understood that she was no longer
her own mistress. He told Fain to send her his notes
on Elba " if it would interest her," and Fain added to
Meneval that letters must be sent via the Viceroy of
Lombardy, or the King of Naples, by Genoa or Livorno.
On the day before the Emperor left Fain sent the
itinerary of his journey, asking for news at Brienne
and at S. Tropez, where he was to sleep, and begging
Meneval to write at every opportunity.

From Frejus wrote General Bertrand, who had ac-
companied Napoleon. His letter shows the regard which
Napoleon's intimates had for Marie Louise. After de-
scribing the Emperor's sad journey : " You can well
believe how much we wish that the Empress should
divide her time between Parma and Elba ; we should
be so happy to see her sometimes ; she has been so kind
to my wife and me, that no one can desire it more
heartily than myself. Please to lay at her feet the
homage of my respectful devotion."

During his last conversation with faithful Caulain-
court, Napoleon, in talking over his separation from
his wife, remarked : " Instead of the court of France
as I have 'made it, to offer her a prison is a great trial.
If she came to me with a sad or bored face I should
be terribly sorry about it. I prefer solitude to a vision
of melancholy and ennui. If her own inclination sends
her to me, I shall receive her with open arms. Other-
wise let her stay at Parma or Florence, where, at least,
she will reign. I shall only require of her my son. . . .
I know her ; she is weak and frivolous. My dear
Caulaincourt, Caesar may become a mere citizen, but
his wife can with difficulty cease to be the wife of
Csesar."

He regretted to Caulaincourt that the Allies had
not given Marie Louise Tuscany. " She would only

326 An Imperial Victim

have had to cross the Piombino channels to see me.
My prison would have been, as it were, surrounded by
her States, and under these circumstances I could have
hoped to see her. I would even have gone to visit
her, and, when they saw that I had given up the world,
and that like a new Sancho, I thought only of the
happiness of my island, they would have allowed me
those little journeys."

There is no doubt, that, at the time Napoleon left
for Elba, if Marie Louise had been in the faintest degree
encouraged by her father, she would have gone thither
with him. At St. Helena he himself said that Marie
Louise was innocence itself and that she loved him.
" Had she not been influenced by that canaille, Madame
de Montebello, and Corvisart, who was a miserable, she
would have followed me to Elba/'

When Napoleon sent Caulaincourt to see her, she
told him as much. She gave him loving messages for
her husband, renewed her vows of loyalty and fidelity,
and swore to bring him back his son. But, added to her
bias towards her father's wishes, was also a feeling that
she might be an incubus to Napoleon on his journey, of
which she exaggerated the possible difficulties and dangers
for herself and her child.

But the whole key to her attitude is probably her
physical as much as mental or moral weakness. We have
seen how completely the unexpected overthrow of the
Empire had told on Marie Louise's health and nerves.
We have seen how she was broken down by the mental
anxiety which had so suddenly broken in upon a rather
superficial existence of unclouded happiness and pleasure.
The sharp contrast would have tried a stronger character,
a more level head. Add to all this the fatiguing journeys
over the bad roads in the heavy spring rains, the very
early starts, the late arrivals, the want of sleep ; she was

In the Crucible 327

physically worn out. When she left Rambouillet on
April 23 even the short drive to Grosbois tried her
so that she was quite ill, and had to rest there for two
days.

The Duchesse d'Angouleme had most considerately
written to the Kaiser offering to provide for the Empress's
household and servants left at Paris. Marie Louise sent
her one woman and four men. Madame Durand, who
was left in France, obtained a pension for herself and a
scholarship for her son at the College Henri.

The Prince of Wagram and Neufchatel had given
up his chateau of Grosbois for the reception of the
Empress, and had retired with his family to the neigh-
bouring chateau of Marolles. Sent to fetch Marie
Louise from Vienna as a bride, he was the last to bid
her adieu as she left France, practically widowed.

The Comtesse de Montesquieu's son Anatole,
Napoleon's Grand Chamberlain, was awaiting the Empress
at Grosbois, and the Kaiser came and spent the day
with her. In the evening Wagram went over to present
her suite to the Kaiser, and Marie Louise bade farewell
to those she was not taking with her. u She carried
with her the regrets of all who had had the happiness
of approaching her, and left among us the memory of
all the virtues."

On the 25th the Empress started for Austria. Her
suite consisted only of the Duchesse de Montebello, the
Comtesse Brignole, General Caffarelli, Comte de S.
Aignan, the Baron de Meneval and M. dc Bausset,
Dr. Corvisart and a surgeon. The King of Rome had
with him the Comtesse de Montesquiou, Mesdames
Rabusson and Soufflot, the latter's daughter Fanny,
Madame Marchand, and his nurses. General Kinsky
commanded the Austrian escort.

Marie Louise followed the same route by which the

An Imperial Victim

Allies had reached Paris, and through departments where,
four years previously, arches of triumph had been raised
to greet her arrival. The state of the country was in-
describably dreadful, showing terrible traces of the recent
war. Camps of Cossacks and Austrians were passed
between Grosbois and Provins. Devastation was wide-
spread ; villages were ravaged and blackened. At Nogent
only two houses stood intact. Crowds of loose cavalry-
horses roamed the fields, trampling the growing corn.

" Her heart was torn during this sad journey ; every-
thing was bitter to her. She only found a little dis-
traction when her eyes no longer rested on scenes
connected with her misfortunes."

Staying the night at Provins, Marie Louise wrote
a few lines to Napoleon, which he received on landing
at Porto Ferrajo. She slept at Troyes at the house of
Mesgregny, father of one of the Emperor's equerries ;
next she stopped at Chatillon, and then at Dijon, where
she was received by the Austrian governor of Burgundy
and his troops, presenting arms. He had actually ordered
a salute of guns and illuminations ! But they were so
little in keeping with her state of mind that she had them
countermanded.

Sleeping at Gray, Vesoule, and Belfort, on May 2
Marie Louise crossed the Rhine between Hunningen and
Basle, and left France for ever.

CHAPTER XIX

AT HOME ONCE MORE

SWITZERLAND in May! What an exhilarating
O effect on health and spirits at two-and-twenty !

From the moment she crossed the Rhine a change
came over the journey of the Empress. All traces of war
and of sad memories seemed left behind. A change, too,
was apparent in the way in which she was received. She
was no longer the wife of a dethroned Sovereign flying
from her conquered country, but the proud daughter of
a great ruler returning to her father's capital and the
home of her childhood. " Our march," writes her prefet
du falais, " had more the aspect of a triumph than a
fete, and one would have thought, perhaps with reason,
that Austria, compelled awhile to lend a beloved daughter,
was celebrating her return as a conquest. All the rulers
of Baden, Wurtemberg, Bavaria, whose frontiers we
crossed, sent deputations of the great officers of their
Courts ; nothing but triumphal arches were wanting to
make us fancy that we were still in the loyal, submissive
territory of Napoleon's Confederation of the Rhine."

In the late afternoon Marie Louise's procession of
twenty-four carriages entered Basle between lines of
Austrian, Swiss, and Bavarian troops, and she was re-
ceived with a sovereign's honours. A day she stayed at
Basle to rest the King of Rome. The boy was tired with
the excitement of the long journey, in which he took

329

33° An Imperial Victim

a great interest, little realizing that it was the longest
journey that he would ever make. He travelled with
his gouvernante, and only saw his mother at the stopping-
places. Her detractors have noted as a want of maternal
affection in Marie Louise, that she did not seek com-
fort in her child's company. But surely for her, in
her present state of health, to be shut up for hours in the
close quarters of a travelling berlin, with a very vivacious
and inquisitive boy, was too fatiguing. The little king
was very happy and amused, with his "Maman 'Quiou";
but one day he suddenly asked, a Why will they not let
me kiss Papa any more ? " He asked ceaseless questions,
" always standing at the carriage window, returning salutes
of passers-by, and much noticed for his charming
manners."

Hiding from the noisy, cheering crowd, the Empress
put up at the house of Senator Winker, and received only
Kinsky and the Austrian Chamberlains, Wrbna and Tosi,
driving out to Aldersheim to see the scenery.

a The Empress is pretty well," wrote M6n£val to his
wife the day after their arrival at Basle," and bears her
situation with more calmness than she would, I think, if
she realized its full significance. She is much flattered.
I warn her against pitfalls. She promises to be firm, and
not to allow herself to be put upon ; but I dread her
unhappy easy-goingness and that habit of passiveness with
which her upbringing has imbued her. Perhaps, also, I
am led away by the illusion that they would be very glad
to keep her all her life in Austria, and to seize in her
name a territory which would give her a shadow of
sovereignty and more facilities for approaching her
husband and receiving his advice, which they dread above
everything. I shall see, on my arrival at Vienna and
during the first days of her stay there, what is to be
hoped or feared in that respect."

At Home Once More 333

At Basle Napoleon's last letter before embarking for
Elba reached Marie Louise, awaking in her ua secret
grief, a sort of remorse," writes M6n£val, " which was
often evident in spite of the great efforts she made not
to show anything." She reached the little <c Crown " inn
at Schaffhausen late in the evening of the 4th, almost at
the same moment that he landed at Porto Ferrajo. After
staying a day there to see the falls, both from the banks
and also from the opposite heights of Schloss Lauffen,
she went on to Zurich, where she made her incognito
an excuse for not receiving visits from the diplomatic
officials of Austria, Bavaria, and Russia, and went for a
row on the lake. From Zurich she wrote to her father
on the text of Napoleon's last letter :

"At Basle I had the comfort of receiving news of the
Emperor. He is well, but he is very sad at the way
he has been received in Provence. He has also other
business which I would like to speak to you about. You
know how repugnant it is to me to speak of money
matters ; but I think it is my duty, as wife and mother,
to point out to you the Emperor's situation and to ask
for your intervention. I do not ask anything for myself,
for I think you would not let me need anything of which
I might find myself in want. The Emperor has but little
money with him. Some ^400,000 to ^ 600,000 — the
result of his savings on the Civil List for the last twelve
years, and a great quantity of snuff-boxes set in diamonds
— are at Orleans, unjustly confiscated by the Commissary
of the Provisional Government. All this is the property
of the Emperor's son. They have also taken away from
him his library and the articles he has in daily use. I
implore you to use every possible means that he may be
put in possession of what belongs to him. The things
that belong to the Crown — diamonds, credit-notes on the
Bank, and other valuables — have been returned through
i — 20

334 An Imperial Victim

the official of the Treasury. They have allowed the
Emperor £80,000 on the grand livre, but the manner
in which the Government is behaving does not lead one
to believe that it will ever be paid, if you, my dear papa,
with your sense of honesty, do not defend the interests
of your son-in-law, who is no longer your enemy. My
implicit trust in your generosity and your kindness leads
me to make this effort with you. I am sure that my
confidence in you will not be deceived.''

From Zurich to Lake Constance the Empress drove
on. In the town of that name she had an enthusiastic
reception, and stayed the night at Prince Waldsee's castle,
going for a row on the lake and paying a visit to the
island of Mainau. Marie Louise then crossed into the
Tirol.

Though still Bavarian, the loyal Tirolese were pining
to return again to Austrian allegiance, and received
the daughter of the Kaiser with frantic joy. At Reitti
her horses were taken out and her carriage dragged
to the inn. A serenade was given under her windows
in the evening, and again in the early morning a Capucin
monk, heading the best male singers of the town, began
a chorus in her honour in the corridor. Though snow
fell all the morning, it did not prevent the inhabitants
turning out to line the road all the way to Innsbruck,
waving the Austrian flag and letting off fireworks at
the approach of the Imperial carriage. Marie Louise
was indeed again an Austrian Archduchess.

On May 12 she reached Innsbruck, lying surrounded
by snowy peaks. It was after dark, and she found the
Tirolese capital illuminated in her honour. The crowd
was so great that two men and a child were crushed to
death at the gate of the city ; the Empress sent money
and assistance to their families. Dragged to the castle
amid cheers by the frenzied populace, Bavarian author!

At Home Once More 335

ties received her at the foot of the grand staircase,
where the guard was mounted in the national dress of
brown jackets and yellow hats lined with green.

The enormous pile of the royal castle of Innsbruck
much impressed the Empress's suite — its sixty-eight com-
plete sets of rooms ; its Gallery of Giants, a magnificent
marble-paved hall ; its portrait-gallery of the Austrian
Imperial family ; its picture-gallery of events in Austrian
history. Not even Versailles could compare with it for
size. Is it surprising that, once again back in the home-
land, Marie Louise should again feel herself a proud
Austrian Archduchess, and that her title of Empress
of the French should begin faintly to sound new and
meretricious ?

In one of the family portraits, that of Joseph II.,
Bausset fancied he saw a resemblance to the King of
Rome. The Empress had the boy fetched. The prefet
du palais held him up on a level with the picture. But
he had only in common with it the Austrian lower lip ;
the chin, nose, and forehead were Napoleon's. It was, of
course, mere flattery ; Bausset was pining to return to
France, and to an appointment at the new old Court.

Innsbruck went mad during the Empress's two
days' stay. Choirs serenaded her beneath her balcony
with patriotic songs. All private feuds emanating from
the Tirolese custom of peacock-feather-in-hat defiance
were laid aside, and, though the arena was open all day
for settling quarrels, there was no braggadocio and no
fighting. A month later, and the Tirol was restored
to Austria.

Passing by Halle, the Empress went down a salt-
mine. At Salzburg the Prince-Royal of Bavaria fe-
ceived her at the gate of the imposing castle overhanging
the city, the gate cut out of solid rock. The Princess-
Royal, young and pretty, called next day, and Marie

33 6 An Imperial Victim

Louise returned her visit at the country house of Mira-
belle, built for, and named after, a former grand-ducal
mistress. Two days the Empress stayed at Salzburg
castle : the size of these German palaces, even those
belonging to the poorest princes, again impressed her suite.
But though the halls at Salzburg were larger than any
in the Tuileries, everything was for show. The private
rooms were a perfect rabbit-warren, and there was no
comfort.

Marie Louise was now drawing near home. To
the Countess de Colloredo she wrote from Salzburg
that she was " so glad to be going to see her," and
bringing her son, " whose looks will please you." She
also wrote to Victoire de Crenneville that she shall have
"such pleasure in showing you my son. I long to be
able to tell you how much I appreciate all the assur-
ances of your affection which I have so often experi-
enced."

The 1 9th was Ascension Day. Marie Louise heard
Mass, and then started for Enns. The next day she
reached the great Abbey of Melk, on the Danube, where
she found the Kaiser's grand equerry, Prince Traut-
mannsdorf, awaiting her to take her orders with refer-
ence to the meeting with her step-mother on the morrow.

Between St. Polten and Sigartskirchen, about twelve
miles from the capital, the two women met again, but
under what altered circumstances ! How the scheming,
malicious Kaiserinn must have chuckled inwardly,
triumphant over her enemy's downfall ! She got intc
Marie Louise's carriage, and the Duchesse into th<
Empress's. There was much to say and to hear, am
many tears to flow during that twelve-miles' drive alon<
to Vienna.

But there had been another, more pleasant, meetin|
and greeting. With the Kaiserinn came Marie Louise'!

At Home Once More 337

old gouvernante, the Countess Lazansky, torn from her
side four years before by the machinations of Napoleon's
sister, and anxious now to be one of the first to welcome
back her beloved charge. Truly Marie Louise had the
talent of eliciting and retaining friendship !

When, that evening, she drove into the courtyard of
Schflnbrtlnn the Empress was handed from her carriage
by the Archduke Charles. At the entrance stood her
other uncles and her brothers, including little Archduke
Francis, who was to be the playfellow of the little King
of Rome. At the door of her apartments waited her
four sisters — Leopoldine, Maria Clementine, Caroline
Ferdinande, and Marie Anne. Overjoyed to receive
their sister back from the clutches of the Corsican ogre,
they <c threw themselves on her neck, congratulating her
on her return as if she had escaped a danger from which
they were delighted to see her return safe and sound."
Was it wonderful if she already felt at home, amongst
her dearest and nearest, and that Napoleon, with no
longer a home to offer her, already began to feel a little
remote ?

Four quiet weeks Marie Louise spent at Schonbrilnn,
awaiting the Kaiser's return from Paris, and for leave
to go to Parma. She resumed the old intimate domestic
life of the Austrian Imperial family. She was installed
on the first floor overlooking the central drive of the
park ; the King of Rome's nurseries were next to her
rooms. They were pleasant rooms, with a view of
greenness all round, and are to be seen to-day as they
then were.

The first few days were spent in long talks with her
sisters — so much to see and hear — and the King of Rome
to be admired and played with by the adoring young
aunts. His mother had him in to dejeuner and fed him
with tit-bits. But Madame de Montesquieu watched

33 8 An Imperial Victim

over him, " noble of heart as noble of name/' and Fanny
Soufflot talked to him of his father, and taught him to
pray for him. Close to the palace a railed-off garden
was allotted to the little King, where he picked flowers
every morning for his mother and " Maman 'Quiou."

The rest of the day Marie Louise rode on horseback,
played the piano, and rubbed up her Italian with a view
to her new dominions. Her carriages and horses had
been sent to her from Rambouillet, including a beautiful
arab of Napoleon's, of which she later made a present
to her father. She revisited all her old haunts in the
grounds of SchSnbrunn, the Gloriette, the Tirolese
chalet of Archduke John, of which the Trianon had
reminded her, the botanical gardens, her father's special
hobbies, the hot-houses, which he had made the finest
in Europe. She rode and drove farther afield — to the
Tiergarten, with its hundreds of wild boars, to the old
Prince de Ligne's little house at Kalemberg, with its view
over the Danube, and its French and Latin inscriptions,
to Laxenburg, with its sham medieval castle on an
island in the lake, to Prince Schwarzenberg's palace of
Dornbach, with its vast gardens, or even as far as the
little watering-place of Baden. Occasionally she would
drive into Vienna to see the sights, taking her boy with
her, and followed by silent, curious crowds, gaping at
" the little Bonaparte," as they called him.

On leaving France the Empress had asked for her
own private possessions, and had drawn up a list of them.
These were now sent her from Fontainebleau, the Tuileries,
St. Cloud, and the Trianon. They consisted of a cradle
with lace curtains, of beds, of cashmere shawls, presented
by the Persian ambassador ; of mirrors, of a dinner service
worth ^200, of her Viennese piano from Fontaine-
bleau, of her Erard piano from St. Cloud, of two pianos
from the Trianons ; of embroidery-frames, harps, jewel-

At Home Once More 339

cases, cheval-glass given by the Crown, worth £240,
from the Tuileries ; of a clavecin, a new model, worth
£200, from St. Cloud ; a harp, a cheval-glass, another
set in mosaic, and an embroidery-frame from the
Trianons.

The Empress arranged her household with the absence
of ceremonial etiquette which she liked ; but she kept
to her own life, and wished to be free. Dejeuner at
eleven ; dinner at seven, with Madame de Montebello,
Brignole, and Messieurs de Bausset and Meneval.
Alternately were invited members of her family, of the
Ministry, their wives, officials, and ladies of the Imperial
household.

" Very frequently," writes Bausset, " the Emperor
Francis, or one of the Archdukes, came to dejeuner with
Marie Louise, the Archduke Charles and his brother
Rudolph more often than the rest. Etiquette was
alleviated by the pleasant manner of the Empress, and
the easy kindness of the House of Austria. Madame
de Brignole, M. de Meneval, and myself, often admitted
to these family banquets, were not victimized, nor were
our evenings made dull by the solemnity of uniform,
whatever might be the rank of the people who came to
increase the number of guests."

Among these was often the old Prince de Ligne,
a courtly figure of universal popularity, now very
aged, but a link with the past, having been the friend of
both Maria Theresa and Catherine of Russia.

But an even more striking personality at Vienna at
that moment was Marie Caroline, Ex-Queen of Naples,
the maternal grandmother of Marie Louise. When the
latter returned home she found her settled in the little
chateau of Hinzendorf, close to SchonbrUnn ; they had
not met since Marie Caroline's long stay at Vienna, when
her granddaughter was a child.

34° An Imperial Victim

" The daughter of Maria Theresa was," says Bausset,
"above the middle height, and without any dignity in
her presence, but her expression was lovely and spirit&elle,
her features fairly regular, her eyes small, and her smile
gracious ; her voice was hard, and her complexion colour-
less ; the only thing to be admired about her was the
extreme whiteness and beauty of her arms. She was then
sixty-three, and it was easy to judge that, in her youth,
she must have been pretty, but less so than her sister,
Marie Antoinette of France.'*

When the Bourbons had been finally turned out of
Naples by Napoleon, Ferdinand and his wife had been
escorted by Nelson to Sicily, where they stayed under
English protection. But, though the intimate friend
of the ambassador's wife, Lady Hamilton, Marie
Caroline only hated the English less than she hated the
usurper. At the crumbling of the Empire she made
her escape from Palermo, and, after a most adventurous
journey by way of Constantinople and Odessa, reached
the home of her birth, determined to leave no stone
unturned till she had accomplished the expulsion of
Murat and the restoration of her husband.

c< The events of the month of April in France had
just brought back Marie Louise into the bosom of her
family ; the grandmother and the granddaughter were
in a somewhat analogous position. The similarity, only
differing in its causes, gave perhaps a deeper note to their
affection than the bond of blood which united them, and
which, as a rule, is of little account in the highest ranks.
Queen Caroline came to ask the return of a crown which
recent treaties allowed Murat to keep. Marie Louise
had been obliged to lay down hers. More energetic,
more impulsive, the Queen of Sicily seemed irritated
by the refusal which she received. I do not know if
this was attributable to the anger she felt with the circum-

At Home Once More 341

spect conduct of the Vienna Cabinet, or only to natural
politeness, or to the consideration which she thought
due to one who had just been the innocent victim of
a more overwhelming political convulsion than that
of which she complained, but certain it is that she had
enough greatness of mind to know how to appreciate
the fidelity and devotion of those who had followed the
fortunes of her granddaughter. She spoke of Napoleon
with the noble frankness of a declared enemy, but also
of an enemy who does not shut her eyes to the great
qualities of that Prince. Reassured by all that the
Empress told her that Napoleon had never ceased to
treat his wife well, and that she had been loaded with
the most touching attentions and consideration, the
Queen of Sicily persuaded her to wear a miniature of
Napoleon, relegated, out of a shy reserve, to the depths
of a jewel-case, and she constantly covered young
Napoleon, the son of her enemy, with caresses. In
this behaviour there was as much shrewdness as delicacy.
Her manner of speaking and of acting did not for an
instant belie itself."

" The Queen," writes Meneval, " who, in the time
of Napoleon's prosperity had been his open enemy, and
whose opinion could not be suspected of partiality, pro-
fessed a high appreciation of his great qualities. Hearing
that I had been attached to him as secretary, she sent for
me to talk to me about him. She said that she had had
formerly much to complain of about him (but I was
fifteen years younger, she remarked) but to-day, as he was
unfortunate, she forgot everything. She could not
restrain her indignation about the machinations which
were being employed to tear her granddaughter away
from the ties which were her glory, and to deprive the
Emperor of the sweetest comfort he could receive after
the immense sacrifices forced from his pride. She added

342 An Imperial Victim

that, if there was opposition made to their reunion, Marie
Louise must knot her bedclothes to the window and
escape in disguise." " Voila ! " she repeated. " That is
what I should have done in her place, for, when one is
married, it is for life ! " " Such a bold step, which was
well in keeping with the old Queen's adventurous spirit,
was not, however, within the power of Marie Louise's
temperament, nor of her notions of decorum."

Marie Louise had all the more need of her grand-
mother's warm-hearted partisanship, affection and good
advice, as, towards the end of May, she lost the com-
panionship of her confidante the Duchesse de Montebello.
The little French circle round the Empress were by no
means happy or at ease at Schftnbrttnn. " We were
received at this Court," writes Meneval, " diversely, but
not as friends. But, on the whole, we had neither to
complain or to be pleased with the reception meted out
to us." One instance, however, he does give of studied
neglect, if not insult, shown to the little group of French
courtiers by their mistress's arch-enemy the Kaiserinn. It
was on St. Ferdinand's day, May 30, when the Allies
were signing the Treaty of Paris, that Marie Louise went
across the Park to Hinzendorf to pay a ceremonial call
on her grandmother, it being the fete-day of the latter's
husband. The Duchesse, Bausset, and S. Aignan accom-
panied her. It chanced that the Kaiserinn was dining
with her aunt, and as etiquette admitted only Marie
Louise to the Queen's apartment, her suite were left to
await her, but in an adjoining pantry among the servants
serving dinner !

The Duchesse de Montebello, very rich, had left her
children in Paris and, as we know, was anxious to return
to them. Her affection and loyalty to the mistress who
trusted her so could not stand the strain of exile. With
her went Dr. Corvisart and the Comte de S. Aignan.

At Home Once More 34-3

The Duchesse and Corvisart had played their part in
weaning Marie Louise from her wish to rejoin her hus-
band, and were no longer needed by the party of the
Allies. The following evening worthy General Caf-
farelli took leave of his mistress, who gave him a parting
souvenir in the shape of a little morocco-bound note-
book in which she had written a few kind words. Loyal
Caffarelli left behind him a long letter for the Empress in
which he tried to give her the good advice of which she
stood so sorely in need. " From this moment," he
wrote, cc Your Majesty no longer belongs to herself, she
belongs to posterity. You must continue to ennoble
misfortune. It is the conduct of Your Majesty which will
sway the opinion of France, Germany, and all Europe."

Marie Louise's suite was now reduced to less than
half. It was the scheme of the Austrian Cabinet gradu-
ally to eliminate all French influence around her. The
Duchesse di Montebello was replaced as dame d'honneur
by the Contessa de Brignole, Italian by birth, a very
clever woman, fully endowed with all the talent for
intrigue of her race. When we add that she had been
often employed by Napoleon — who never used female
agents unless of exceptional capacity — in various delicate
negotiations, among others those with the Pope, it will
readily be seen that, in her new lady, Marie Louise
might easily find a mind too clever for her. The
Contessa's son-in-law — the Due de Dalberg, one of
Napoleon's marshals, had married the rich Contessina
di Brignole — had very promptly gone over to the
winning side, and Talleyrand was already beginning to
employ the mother in his own new interests.

Bausset, now called grand maitre^ Meneval, secretary,
Herceau, doctor, and Miles Rabusson and de Sorbac,
lectrices, were now all that was left to Marie Louise.
The King of Rome had still with him the Comtesse de

m E**

344 An Imperial Victim

Montesquiou, Mesdames Marchand and Soufflot, nurses,
and the latter's daughter, Fanny, whom he loved and
would not leave.

Marie Louise was to become Austrian again. Very
gradually and imperceptibly the net thrown by Metternich
was being drawn round her by her step-mother, and with
the assistance even of those of her own household. The
Kaiserinn and her ladies wished to secure a hold on her
and direct her. A congress of all the Allies was to
assemble in the autumn at Vienna, and it was thought
that it would be unpleasant for Marie Louise to be there
during that time. A royal castle in Hungary was sug-
gested as a retreat, or, if a course of waters were
obligatory, why Aix, and not Carlsbad which would be
nearer her family. But Marie Louise had set her heart
on Aix because she had arranged to meet her dear
Duchesse there. She was still drawn toward France and
the Emperor, but, through her worries, she began to
perceive that the object was to separate her from him.
After Napoleon landed at Elba letters between him and
Marie Louise were stopped both ways for five days. He
complains that he had never had any since the Frejus
courier. From April 6 till June 4, out of six that his
wife wrote, only two reached him.

Against this powerful family influence there was
absolutely no one to keep Marie Louise loyal to her
husband except her grandmother and the faithful secre-
tary. The former, indeed, had her own axe to grind at
the coming congress, her own rights to demand ; all the
more honour, therefore, to her courage in running
counter to the Kaiser and Metternich by trying to influence
her granddaughter as she did. Unfortunately, as we
have already seen, this same granddaughter always agreed
with the last person who advised her, Meneval, at this
time, writes to his wife in Paris regretting what he calls

At Home Once More 345

the Empress's facilite, meaning probably an excess of
kindly feeling and of credulity. She was too easily the
dupe of people who wanted to get something out of her,
who made her promise what she could not perform. She
was averse, also, to any business affairs.

u To think of her own interests," he writes, u she
considers shows a lack of dignity ; not to welcome any
adventurers who try to attach themselves to her, is a
want of generosity." He tried to thwart those impostors,
to open her eyes to her own interests, and to counteract
her fatal disposition of living for the day only and with
no thought of the future. Sometimes he thought his
labours lost, and was sorry he had stayed with her. But
a word from her, uttered with all that simple charm
which endeared her to all who really knew her, sufficed
to bring him back to his duty. " The Empress is
touched with my faithfulness. She told me so with
tears in her eyes. I shall only leave her at the last
gasp."

But he saw troubled waters ahead, and wrote again
to his wife at the end of May. " I do not augur anything
good from what will happen here in the month of June.
If it were not for the real attachment I bear to the
Empress, I should not care at all. For as to what are
called one's own interests, they could not be of less
account. You know, however, that it was not for these
that I have followed her ; I only obeyed my own heart,
and I never counted upon what is the object of all
ambition. I shall never regret it, because, whatever
happens, my conscience is clear. People are saying
openly here that Her Majesty is too young to manage
herself. Probably they assign to me part of the honour
of advising her ; but what does her most harm is the
thoughtlessness with which she has entrusted her financial
affairs, and affairs of honour, to Bausset, who, unfor-

34-6 An Imperial Victim

tunately, enjoys a rather bad reputation, which is well
known here, and which reacts on us. Add to this the
arrival shortly of M. de Cussy, whom you know well,
and you can judge not much more is required to ruin
us. All this, indeed, moves me to tears, and I am
unfortunate in loving so dearly a Princess who is worthy
in so many respects of a deep devotion.''

The Kaiser was to return to his capital from Paris on
June 15. The previous day was spent entirely by Marie
Louise and her French suite in long talks with the
Ex-Queen of Naples. It was a last concerted attempt to
bring Marie Louise back to a sense of her duty to her
husband, ere the ever-preponderating influence of her
father again made itself felt. She had just received a
letter from Napoleon, which she cc brought to her grand-
mother " mixed up in her writing-case with " other
letters and despatches/ ' This shows that, up to this date
at any rate, she received letters from him unopened.
Napoleon was urging upon her the propriety of rejoining
him at once, or, at all events, of avoiding going to Aix, so
obstinately prescribed by Corvisart ; for Aix was a French
town, and therefore, in Napoleon's eyes, an unsuitable
place of residence for the Ex-Empress as a private person.
Bertrand also wrote from Elba to Meneval : u If the
Empress has awaited at Vienna the reply to her letter,
the Emperor desires that she do not go to Aix, and, if
she has already gone there, that she only spends the time
of one course of baths there, and returns as soon as
possible to Tuscany, where there are waters of the same
ingredients as Aix. These are nearer to us and to Parma,
and would allow of the Empress having her son with her.
. . . The journey to Aix pleases the Emperor all the less
because there are probably no longer any Austrian troops
there, and the Empress might be exposed to the insults
of some adventurers, and besides, her neighbourhood would

At Home Once More 347

not please the sovereign of that country. There are
none of these drawbacks in Tuscany."

Madame de Brignole was that day sending a courier
off to Elba, and Marie Louise took the opportunity to
despatch a letter to her husband. Though several letters
had passed between them, relations were already growing
cold, and she was not keeping up such an active
correspondence with him, though, as yet, there was no
hindrance placed to her writing to him.

But, like the spoilt child she was, Marie Louise had
set her heart on Aix and upon meeting the Duchesse.
Recovered in health and spirits from the troubles of the
spring, she had begun to feel a little bored after a month
at Schonbriinn. Even Meneval found the life there
dull, he tells his wife :

" If you want to know how my day is arranged, here
it is : I rise at six or seven in the morning, but not later.
I read a little, or receive some one. I dress and go at
nine o'clock to the Empress, with whom I spend an hour.
At eleven-thirty we breakfast, usually alone — that is to
say, the Empress, Madame de Brignole, Bausset, and I.
After breakfast Her Majesty sometimes receives her
uncles or strangers, or she occupies herself in her own
rooms, or spends some hours with her family, or takes
an Italian lesson, till five o'clock, when she goes out, if
weather permits, on horseback, or on foot, or for a drive ;
I generally go with her. At seven o'clock we dine ;
almost always the Empress invites two or three persons
from Vienna. After dinner we play at la pouley and at
ten o'clock Her Majesty retires. After a little con-
versation we go on playing for half an hour or an hour,
and then we go to bed. There is a very regular life,
and, I must add, a very monotonous one, as far as I am
concerned."

society of only her brothers and sisters and

348 An Imperial Victim

relatives varied with a few small dinners, palled, after a
while. For the last four years Napoleon had kept her
in a whirl of amusements of all kinds. Now, restless, she
longed for a change, to be taken out of herself and her
worries ; her conscience was uneasy, too, and she was
remorseful at having left him. Of the delights of that
fashionable watering-place, Aix, she had often heard
much ; but Austria was as much opposed to the scheme
as was Napoleon. Marie Louise might do without the
latter's consent, but perforce she had to wait for that of
her father.

Meanwhile, at Malmaison, Napoleon's faithful Jose-
phine had died, lamenting with her last breath that the
existence of Marie Louise prevented her joining Napoleon
at Elba. The ruin of the Empire had only jarred his
second wife ; it shattered his first.

"On July 15," writes Meneval, "her Majesty set
out at eight o'clock from Sch6nbriinn, with Madame de
Brignole and myself, for Sigartskirchen, where she was to
await at the post-house the arrival of the Emperor of
Austria, who was returning to his States, and whom she
had determined to go and meet. The Emperor Francis
reached Sigartskirchen at half-past one, and came to meet
Her Majesty at the post house, accompanied by the
Empress of Austria. The former Empress of the
French received her father in the same room in the post-
house where, in 1805, the Emperor Napoleon had
received the deputation which came to bring him the keys
of Vienna. The memory of that scene, which I had
witnessed nine years before, came vividly back to my
mind. I saw again the conqueror, before him Count
Zinzendorf, followed by the venerable magistrates, who,
bowing, presented to him on a silver salver the keys of
the proud capital of Austria. The hallucination seized
me to such an extent that involuntarily I shut my eyes

At Home Once More 349

to recover myself. When I opened them again I saw
a very different scene. The parts were changed. On
the same spot where I had seen the victorious soldier
in a proud attitude, softened by a feeling of natural
generosity and by the sympathy with which the humi-
liation of a great people inspires a magnanimous heart, I
saw a Princess almost kneeling, with moist eyes, before
a Prince who raised her with a mixture of pride and
tenderness. This Princess was the wife of Napoleon ;
the Prince, the father-in-law of her husband, of whom
he had once begged mercy at the bivouac of Sar-
Uchitz, and whom to-day he proscribed. God ! I said
to myself, what a freak of fortune, what a lesson ! "

Marie Louise drove back alone in the carriage with
her father. At Burkendorf the family all dined together,
and she then went on a quarter of an hour ahead to
Schonbrunn, accompanied by her brother Ferdinand and
the Grand-duke of Wiirzburg, her uncle. When the
Kaiser reached the palace she brought her son to meet
him. Immense crowds of loyal Viennese thronged the
roads and the grounds of Schftnbrunn, and even over-
flowed into the imperial apartments to welcome back their
beloved sovereign.

The next day, at eight in the morning, the Kaiser
made his triumphal entry into Vienna, on horseback.
It had been suggested to him to ride Napoleon's arab,
which his daughter had given him ; but better taste
prevailed. Vienna was giddy with joy. " The illumina-
tions of the houses," writes Gentz, " costing 450,000 to
2,000,000 florins, will be unparalleled in the history of
the world. And what feasting afterwards ! Things about
me are growing too wild ! "

Marie Louise got round her father, who was, in his
way, really devoted to her, and, after due consultation with
Metternich, he gave her permission, despite Napoleon, to

I 21

35° An Imperial Victim

go to Aix. But her evil genius made two stipulations
The first was that the King of Rome should be left
behind as a kind of hostage, and the second that she
should be accompanied by a sort of commissary of the
Austrian Government. A mentor was necessary for the
guidance of this inexperienced young woman should she
venture beyond Metternich's immediate surveillance, and
the mentor was not to be Meneval, or any one devoted to
Napoleon.

Metternich and the Kaiserinn put their heads together.
At first their choice fell upon Prince Nicholas Esterhazy,
a relative of Marie Louise's equerry in her girlhood, and
a highly respectable courtier ; but on second thoughts
he was considered " too old1' (!) to acquire the desirable
influence over Marie Louise, who was twenty-three !

Count Adam Albert Neipperg was then suggested,
sounded, and approved, for he was a devoted adherent of
Austria. A more extraordinary choice could not have
been made. For, whoever the instrument of Austrian
policy was to be, that man must necessarily occupy the
position of close personal adviser of Marie Louise, and
inevitably, given the small dimensions of her household,
and the easy life of incognito she was to lead at Aix, be
admitted to much private intercourse with her. Napoleon,
as we have seen, had wrapped his young wife round with
every conceivable precaution, lest her innocence should
be sullied by contact with courtiers of a world and an
epoch notable for its immorality. Her father chose
for her intimate counsellor a man of most disreputable
private life.

The 29th of June was fixed for theEmpress'sdeparture.
The King of Rome was to be left in charge of Madame
de Montesquiou and the celebrated Viennese doctor
Franck. On the Sunday before she left, Marie Louise
received a great many people — the Imperial famil

'•

At Home Once More 351

courtiers, and notabilities. Next day she drove to Baden
to take leave of her father, who was there for his health.
A rather serious indisposition of Madame de Brignole
threatened to postpone the Empress's departure. On the
29th her uncles, her brothers, and her grandmother came
to say good-bye. It was to be Marie Louise's final
parting with the brave old lady, who had done her best
for her up to the last. At six o'clock she went to say
farewell to her sisters, at half-past seven she dined alone
with her boy and Meneval, and during dinner the
Countesses Colloredo and Crenneville came to make
their adieux. At eight came her step-mother, determined
to have the last word, and she remained till Marie
Louise got into her carriage, having promised faithfully
to come back to Vienna after having gone through two
courses of baths at Aix. Metternich, having laid the
coping-stone on his work, had gone off on a holiday to
England.

Marie Louise had determined to reach Aix by way
of Bavaria and Switzerland, and thus spin out the
travelling which she so much enjoyed. Bausset went
ahead as sort of courier. Count Neipperg was only to
meet her at Aix. Travelling under the name of Contessa
di Colorno — one of her country palaces in Parma — she
went by Lambach — scene of a French victory over the
Russians in 1805, which must have awoke memories of
Napoleon — to Munich, where she was received by his
stepson Eugene and his wife, a Bavarian Princess. They
carried her off to supper. " We followed her," writes
Meneval, " Madame de Brignole and I, in all the disorder
of travelling dress, and supped at the palace of Prince
Eugene with the Princess-Royal of Wilrtemberg, sister
and sister-in-law of our hosts. This Princess, after
separating from a husband forced on her by Napoleon's
policy, had come for consolation to reside with her sister.

352 An Imperial Victim

Providence was preparing a startling reparation for her by
placing her, a year later, on the throne of Austria."

In her hurry to reach Switzerland Marie Louise
travelled all night by Landsberg to Morsburg, where they
found poor Bausset, always a bad traveller, laid up at
the " Bar " with the gout. This delayed the party till
the 5th, when they started at half-past six in the morning,
and sailed across the lake to Constance, where carriages
were waiting. At Baden Marie Louise met another
member of her husband's family, Louis, taking the baths
there. After spending the night at the " Barbarian " at
Aargau, they reached Bern and the " Falcken " at seven
in the evening, after an exceedingly hot and dusty drive.

The Empress spent the day at Berne seeing the sights,
including the famous bear-pit, and shopping, buying,
among other things, a fine picture of Berne by Lorry,
which she gave to Meneval. On the 8th they drove on
to Lausanne. Next day she went for a drive in the
neighbourhood, during which Meneval's carriage was
upset and his wrist sprained. Then she went for a row
on the lake from Ouchy, wearing, says a Swiss eye-
witness, " a white dress under a green silk tunic, a much-
draped shawl, a straw hat trimmed with lace and flowers.
She looked sad, but sweet, with a very pleasing
expression."

On returning to her inn, Marie Louise found another
brother-in-law, Joseph, had come to call upon her. This
ex-monarch had taken up his abode in a hired country-
house at Les Pragins, twelve miles from Lausanne, on
the edge of the lake. Marie Louise spent the next day
there, rowing on the lake, strolling, during a fearful heat,
in the shrubberies, and leaving, after a light meal, in his
char-a-banc for the English inn at the gates of Geneva,
"Les Secherons," so famous at that time. After spend-
ing the night there, King Joseph returned to his villa.

At Home Once More 353

He lent a riding-horse to his sister-in-law, whose own
horses had all been sent direct to Aix, and she rode it
during her Chamonix tour. Doubless had the Austrian
Government foreseen all these meetings with Napoleon's
family, and had Neipperg already mounted guard, they
would not have taken place. But Marie Louise took no
advantage of them to draw back nearer to Napoleon.

At seven in the morning next day she left " Les
Secherons," reaching Chamonix in a terrific storm and
pouring rain. Bausset, whose portly figure rendered him
unsuited for mountain excursions, was left behind. Only
Meneval, Madame de Brignole, Mile Rabusson, a doctor,
and a Geneva guide accompanied the Empress. For six
days the latter thoroughly explored the Chamonix district
— glaciers, waterfalls, the Montanvert, and the Col de
Balme. So intensely did she enjoy the Alpine air and
scenery that she begged her secretary to immortalize her
tour in verse. But Meneval's devotion for once failed
him, and he was unequal to the task. " The Duchesse di
Colorno," he writes, " was indefatigable and courageous,
even to rashness. One would have said that she tried
to make herself giddy. She showed a contented serenity
and a courage which astonished her guides . . . doing
all the excursions on foot or on a mule, and not allowing
herself to be carried ; and her health benefited much."

On the 1 6th she was back again at " Les Secherons,"
leaving it next morning for Aix-les-Bains. As she reached
the outskirts of the town in the golden light of a late
July evening, an officer in the picturesque uniform of the
Hungarian Hussars, with the pelisse slung from the
shoulder, came prancing up to the carriage door and
saluted her respectfully. Of middle age and of middle
height, but well made, his scanty fair hair curled under
his busby, and his left eye was keen and piercing. The
other he had lost, and its absence was concealed by a black

354 An Imperial Victim

shade bound across his forehead. He announced himself
as Count Adam Albert von Neipperg.

At first sight of him, writes Meneval, Marie Louise
received an unpleasant impression. " Was it the instinct
of a loyal heart but little confident in itself, which pointed
out this man as an evil genius, and warned her secretly
of the danger of abandoning herself to his advice ? "

CHAPTER XX

THE SECOND SACRIFICE

IT is strange that Napoleon's lifelong foe, the man
chosen by his deadly enemy, Metternich, to seduce
his wife from her duty, conjugal, maternal, and patriotic,
should have been half-French. Perhaps, as is sometimes
the case, the knowledge of his illegitimacy — the secret
of a few — was the reason of Neipperg's implacable hatred
of the country of his mother's lover.

Count Leopold de Neipperg, of an old Suabian
family, a diplomatist, was also a mechanical genius. When
ambassador at Paris before the Revolution he amused
himself with inventing a secret letter-copying machine, a
kind of early typewriter, and neglected his wife, who found

consolation with one Comte d'H . That the latter

was the father of her son a letter found by the wife

of Comte d'H after her husband's death leaves in

no manner of doubt. That Count Adam Albert de
Neipperg, as this son was called, was acquainted with
his origin is also indubitable, for, when in Paris with
the Allies in 1814, he paid a visit to the Comtesse

de C , daughter of Comte d'H , and therefore

his half-sister, and was useful to General C , her

husband.

Born in 1775, at fifteen Neipperg entered the
Austrian army, and Jemappes was his baptism of fire.
At eighteen, at Doelen, he was dangerously wounded,

355

356 An Imperial Victim

a sabre-cut piercing his right eye. In hospital the
republicans thought he spoke French too well for a
German, and nearly shot him for an emigre. One-eyed
for life, he took part in the Tirolese War, which ended
in Austria annexing Venice, and in the Italian campaigns,
especially distinguishing himself at Marengo by rousing
Melas to the fact that the battle was not lost.

In 1810 he was sent to Paris to negotiate an exchange
of prisoners, and then to Sweden as ambassador. While
bringing about the rapprochement of Russia, England, and
Sweden, and the defection of Bernadotte from Napoleon,
he was equally successful socially. Madame de Stael,
who met him in Stockholm, dubbed this gallant and
brilliant officer "the German Bayard."

The patriotic campaigns of 1812 — 13 recalled
Neipperg to military duty. At Leipzig he was pro-
moted lieutenant field-marshal on the field.

Next, once again a diplomat, he was sent to Italy to
lure Joachim Murat over to the Allies, a work that
earned for him the praise of Metternich, that he had
" on this occasion given new proofs of his talents, his
tact, and his devotion to the service of our august
sovereign."

Such a clever instrument was shortly used again by
Metternich, this time as a peacemaker. He was sent
from Mantua with a letter from the King of Bavaria
for his son-in-law, Eugene Beauharnais, Viceroy of Italy,
begging him to follow the King's example and cease a
struggle which Napoleon's abdication had rendered hope-
less. But in this case Neipperg's persuasion in backing
up the King's letter failed. " I do not understand
anything about politics," replied Eugene ; " but if it is
true that the Emperor has abdicated, let us not lose a
moment, but march to support the rights of the Empress
and her son."

The Second Sacrifice 357

Nevertheless, this beau cavalier of a diplomat-soldier
seemed to Metternich exactly the man to his hand with
Marie Louise. Neipperg was at Milan when the minister
informed him that he had been appointed grand maitre
of the household of the Duchess of Parma. He was
living there with the wife he had married only a year
previously, nee Contessa Teresa Pola, whom he had
carried off from her husband, one Ramondini of Bologna,
and by whom he already had five children !

When bidding farewell to this wife, before proceeding
to take up his appointment, Neipperg, speaking of Marie
Louise, remarked : " Before six months are out I shall be
her lover, and soon her husband."

Previously to the Pola affaire, writes the Baronne
de Montet, whose husband knew him well in Italy,
Neipperg <c had been passionately in love with a Contessa
Trento, who had her marriage annulled in order to marry
him. This was very difficult, and one day Neipperg,
speaking, with the eagerness of a man deeply smitten, of
the complications and delays with regard to his marriage
with Contessa Trento, exclaimed : " But that is just it !
I have been foretold that I shall only make extraordinary
marriages ! "

When he met Marie Louise at Aix, Neipperg was
thirty-nine, seventeen years her senior, " a man of noble
and chivalrous ideas," writes Madame de Montet,
" and with a face and figure extremely well-bred." His
disfiguring black shade and band did not, apparently,
detract from his attractions in the eyes of the many
ladies who had favoured him. Why he continued to
wear it, when glass eyes had been invented for more
than a century, is an unsolved problem.

Neipperg was an eminently " all-round " man. " He
possessed," writes Meneval, " pleasant accomplishments,
and especially that of music. Active, clever, unscru-

358 An Imperial Victim

pulous, he knew how to conceal his guile under a
guise of simplicity ; he expressed himself well and also
wrote well. Count Neipperg was not endowed with a
remarkable exterior. A black band hid the deep scar
of a wound which had deprived him of an eye ; but
this disfigurement was overlooked when one considered
him attentively. The wound, indeed, suited the general
effect of his face, which had a military appearance. He
had very fair hair, scanty and curly ; his glance was quick
and penetrating. His features were neither common nor
well-bred ; but, taken altogether, they showed him to be
a subtle and supple man. His complexion, as a whole
high-coloured, was not fresh ; the wear and tear and the
fatigues of war and many wounds were apparent on it.
He was of middle height, but well built, and the elegance
of his appearance was enhanced by the smart cut of the
Hungarian uniform. General Neipperg was then about
forty-two. The behaviour of Comte Neipperg was that
of a cautious man. His usual expression was kind, mixed
with eagerness and gravity. His manners were polite,
insinuating, flattering. He combined with much tact a
very observant mind ; he had the art of listening and
of giving a thoughtful attention to the words of his
interlocutor. At one moment his face would assume a
caressing expression, at another his glance sought to
guess thoughts. He was as clever in penetrating the
designs of others as he was prudent in managing his
own. Combining an appearance of great modesty with a
deep foundation of vanity and ambition, he never talked
about himself. He was brave in war ; his many wounds
showed that he had not spared himself."

As Neipperg rode by Marie Louise's carriage window
from Caring to Aix, she vaguely recalled having seen him
during that glorious time at Dresden, when he had been
attached to her suite as chamberlain by her father. But

The Second Sacrifice 359

there does not seem any proof for Madame de Cavaignac's
story in her chronique scandaleuse : ct Les Memoires d'une
Inconnue," which she only relates at fourth hand. " Now
this is what M. Bresson, who saw a great deal of my
nephew, told him he had from La Valette, whom he had
received and hidden in his house after his escape. At
the beginning of 1814, a courier was arrested or found
dead, I do not recollect which, carrying a letter from
Marie Louise to this Neipperg, in which she told him :
' Let us have patience ; all this is crumbling away and
cannot last long ! ' It is M. de La Valette, who had
handled and read the letter, who reported it to M. Bresson,
who told it to my nephew."

Even supposing her not as devoted to Napoleon early
in 1814 as her letters show, and those surrounding her
bear witness, Marie Louise was too well guarded to have
such a secret, besides not being clever enough, or a
sufficient actress, to keep it from Napoleon and his
myrmidons.

Neipperg had taken for the Empress a villa situated
on a hill above the town, commanding a lovely view of
the lake of Bourget, backed by the rocky mountains and
glaciers. " I am lodged here in a very small way," she
wrote to her father, four days after her arrival, " but
comfortably. Count Neuperg (sic) is full of attentions to
me, and his ways please me very much." At first, how-
ever, Marie Louise felt sad at Aix, and only received
Neipperg semi-officially, at least as long as M£n£val
stayed with her,

But five days after her arrival the latter took two
months' leave of absence to rejoin his wife and children in
Paris. One cannot begrudge this faithful servant a short
holiday, after all he had gone through for his master and
his mistress, but his departure was a fatal loss for Marie
Louise, for it left the field open for Neipperg's design.

360 An Imperial Victim

For weeks she was to be left practically alone with Madame
de Brignole and Neipperg, tc two creatures who seemed to
have been invented on purpose to detach her from her
husband, for the one, prompted by Talleyrand, talked
cleverly against the Emperor, and the other knew that, in
calumniating Napoleon, he was displeasing neither Metter-
nich nor Franz. "

Yet the Empress, driving in carriages emblazoned
with the Imperial arms, attended by footmen wearing the
green Imperial livery, was also entirely surrounded by a
French suite — Brignole, Rabusson, the lectrice, her fiance
Dr. Herceau, Bausset, grand maitre, Cussy, chamberlain,
devoted to Napoleon. Strange that the Bourbons did
not take fright at this sojourn of the Empress and her
imperial cortege in a French town. Doubtless they had
a well-founded reliance on Metternich's confidence in
Neipperg. Insinuating, flattering, zealous, a born manager
of women, yet withal prudent, the latter soon became her
factotum.

After the excitement and the invigorating air of the
high Alps, Neipperg' s first care was that the relaxing
valley of Aix and the enervating effect of the waters
should not bore or depress Marie Louise. She took
part in all the public amusements of the gay watering-
place : he arranged excursions, fetes-champetres, boating
parties on the lake, and an excursion to the Abbey of
Haute Combe, where the monks sing dirges over the
tombs of the house of Savoy. She took long rides with
Neipperg about the country.

He sent to Paris for Talma to come and act to her,
and " she gave evening parties which made a sensation,
at which Talma, always superbly energetic and passionate,
recited in plain clothes the most famous scenes in English
repertoire/* Isabey came to paint her portrait, which she
gave to Bausset. The Empress hoped to induce the

The Second Sacrifice 361

artist to follow her to Parma, but he set too high a price
on his services, " and even if he would come for nothing,"
she wrote to Meneval, " I should not allow myself to
take him without having first obtained the Emperor's
consent. You know what a prejudice he has against him,
which I must respect ; although separated from him, I
am none the less responsible for my conduct to my
husband."

At present, so far so good. Her conjugal feeling is
irreproachable.

Neipperg also sent for Pae'r, who had been the music-
master of Marie Louise's mother, and whom she had had
appointed director of the Theatre Italien in Paris in 1812.
There was much music-making at the villa. Neipperg
was no mean performer on the piano ; his talent was one
of his great attractions in the eyes of the Empress, and
music proved to be a great bond between them.

With this lively life Marie Louise grew better in
health and spirits. <c My health is benefited by my
stay," she wrote to her friend Victoire. c< I bathe regularly,
and it strengthens my chest."

Yet she had fits of melancholy and remorse, torn
between her duty to Napoleon and the course along which
she was being dragged by those around her. She missed
Meneval and his loyal advice, and her frequent letters to
him show the struggle which was going on within her.
She wrote almost directly he had left her.

" You have only gone a very short time, but yet I
make haste to write to you that you may not have to com-
plain of my unpunctuality. I hope that you will sometimes
think of me, and that you will not give yourself up to
black thoughts ; in which case I remind you of your
promise to write to me at once that I may conjure them
away.

3^2 An Imperial Victim

" In a few days you will be happy. You will be with
your family, with your little children, whom you will find
much grown ; whereas I shall miss you very much, as
much for your good advice as for the pleasure it was
to me to talk to you.

" My health is pretty good. I took my first bath
yesterday. I do not know if I shall be courageous enough
to go on, for they smell very badly.

<c I am not writing to you a long letter, because it is
very late. I beg you to believe all my feelings of esteem
and friendship.

" Your very affectionate

" LOUISE."

Life was whirling fast at Aix, but a week later she
wrote again :

" I have not written since last week, because I
had not a moment to myself, and hope you will not
have been uneasy over my silence, because I begged
M. la Duchesse de Montebello to give you my news.
I am sending you a great many letters I have received in
the packages from Vienna. There is one which I opened
because there were plans for arranging my stables. I
send you M. Balouhey's letter, which was enclosed.
I have also received, addressed to you, some from M.
Marescalchi which I have kept.

u I beg you will inform M. Balouhey again how
necessary he is to me for my business affairs. I wish that
he could come before I leave for Italy, otherwise my
business will be in terrible disorder.

" I hope your health is good ; mine is very good now,
from using the baths ; I have already had five, and I walk
a great deal, quite as beautiful excursions as those I went
with you. The rest of my time is spent in writing the

The Second Sacrifice 363

account of my journey in Chamouny (sic}. Isabey has
already made some sketches of it ; they are charming.
I have not got on with the letter-press so well. You
know the materials you were to bring me to correct the
copy ; I do not require them. If you will keep them
I suggest that you have them put in a case and sent to
Parma ; otherwise I advise you to get rid of them as
soon as possible. I had rather that that was not done at
present, for I am so lazy that I have hardly reached the
point where we crossed the torrent of La Grta. . . .

" I hope Madame de Meneval has not forgotten me,
I pity her very much this heat. . . . How she must
suffer on account of it by reason of her pregnancy! It
is so bad here that we can hardly leave the house.

a I have not yet received news of you, which makes
me uneasy ; I believe, however, that you are writing to
me ; at least they should be civil enough to pass on my
letters to me after having read them. I beg you to
believe all my friendship."

" Your very affectionate

" LOUISE."

On July 31 Marie Louise wrote what was to be the
last letter that Napoleon was to receive from her. She
sent it by a pseudo-commercial traveller, and it did not
reach him till August 20. In it she told him that she
found she should be obliged to go back to Vienna,
but assured him of her love and of her speedy return
to him.

She wrote as follows to Meneval, August 4 :

" I received yesterday, with much pleasure, your letter
of the 27th, and beg you to continue to give me all
your news, and all that interests you ; I beg you also to
give me news of the Duchesse's little family, for she is

3^4 An Imperial Victim

not very good at details. I am still waiting for an answer
from my father to know the time when I may go to
Parma. I will let you know at once. Though I am
very pleased that you can soon return to me, I feel very
much that you must wish to stay with Madame de
Men£val a little longer, and certainly it is unselfish of me
to allow you to do so.

" My health is good, but I am terribly tired with this
great heat. I have just had a more tiring excursion than
that of the Montanvert ; I returned this morning at two.
I meant to describe it to you, but I am so sleepy that I
must put it off till next post-day.

" Your very affectionate

" LOUISE."

That same day the Duchesse de Montebello arrived
to spend a fortnight with her friend ; one may be certain
that her influence was not used in favour of the island of
Elba ; moreover, Marie Louise was now set on going
to Parma.

To M£neval, August 6 :

u I have received this morning all the letters which
you entrusted to the Duchesse de Montebello, and I am
not exaggerating when I tell you that they give me very
much pleasure. I am sorry to see that you are uneasy
at not getting any news of me ; it is the fourth time I am
writing to you. Also by the Duchesse I will write to you
at length. I am very sorry that she cannot stay longer
than ten or twelve days ; it is a very short time, and I do
not know when I shall see her again. My health is verj
good compared with what it was at Vienna, which is du<
to the baths and the peace I am enjoying here. Worri(
kill me. My compliments to Madame de Men£val.
do not write any more, because I have no time,"

Biuard's " Marts de Marie-Louise " (Perrin).

ALBERT ADAM, GRAF VON NEIPPERG.
From Comte de Bombelles' "Monument! e Munificenzi," etc.

365

The Second Sacrifice 367

Marie Louise was becoming more and more anxious
to take possession of her new States. About a fortnight
after her arrival at Aix she sent Bausset off to Parma to
inspect and report.

To M£neval she wrote again, on August 8 :

u I am still in a terrible state of uncertainty with
regard to my future. I have written a letter to my father
by M. de Karaczai, in which I have asked his leave to go
and settle in at Parma on September 10, at latest. Will
the leave be granted ? I fear not. . . .

" If the reply is in the negative 1 shall decide not to
return to Vienna ^before the sovereigns have left there,
and I shall try and have my son back with me again for
the time being ; I shall settle at Geneva or at Parma while
awaiting the Congress, for it is impossible for me to
remain longer than the bathing season here. I cannot
tell you how impatiently I await a reply, and I beg you to
help me with your advice as to my decision. Do not fear
to tell me the truth, if my decision seems to you un-
reasonable ; I claim your advice as from a friend, and I
hope you will give it me candidly.

<c I have just this moment received a letter from the
Emperor- from the Isle of Elba, of July 4. He begs
me not to go to Aix, but to go to Tuscany to take the
waters. I shall write to my father about it. You know
how much I desire to follow the Emperor's wishes ; but
in this case should I do so if they do not agree with
my father's plans ? I send you a letter from Porto
Ferrajo. It should have given me some particulars ; if
there are any, please let me know them. I thank you
very much for those you have given me. I wanted
them ; it is so long since I have had any. I am in
a very critical and unhappy position. I must be very
prudent in my behaviour. There are times when it

I — 22

368 An Imperial Victim

makes my head spin so that I think the best thing I
could do would be to die. . . .

"My health is fairly good. I am having my tenth
bath. They would do me good if my mind were easier ;
but I shall not be easy till I am out of this fatal state
of uncertainty. I am delighted with the thought that
you will soon come and discuss things with me and calm
my poor head ; I need it badly. M. de Bausset went
off a few days ago, and with him all the papers I wanted
to see, so that I have not been able to go into the
month's accounts, as I had intended. I am expecting
impatiently the courier which he has despatched from
Parma.

"The heat here is still awful. It is not good for
the long rides I take. We sometimes get caught in the
dark, and I die of fright getting home on horseback.

u Your very affectionate

" LOUISE."

A sad letter, showing plainly how Marie Louise was
torn in twain between her conscience and Neipperg's
growing influence, longing for Meneval's faithful counsel
and for her child. Yet, weak and swayed about as she
is, it is the uncertainty about Parma which worries her
so. There is no anxiety to accede to Napoleon's wishes.
Her father's desires, in her estimation, quite override them.

The Emperor had written to Meneval that he ex-
pected the Empress at the end of August. At the same
time he said to General Bertrand : " Write to her that
I desire that she has my son sent to me, and that it is
odd that I do not hear any news of her ; it must be
because the letters are kept back, which must be done by
some subordinate official, and cannot be done by her
father. No one has any right over the Empress and her

son/'

The Second Sacrifice 369

That Marie Louise felt such qualms of conscience
as were compatible with her light and easy-going nature
is apparent from her letter to Meneval written on the
Fete-Napoleon, a day awakening sad memories, for which
she actually apologizes to Meneval, as if he himself
were not also a prey to them. But there is no hint of
Elba, Napoleon's name is not mentioned, even to the
faithful servant who never swerved in his allegiance.

" I have not had any answer from my father to the
letter of which I told you in my last. This time of
uncertainty is very hard, and very long for me to bear.
I am expecting it so impatiently, and I will tell you
about it at once. Dark forebodings tell me that it will
not be favourable ; perhaps I am wrong ! How can I
be cheerful on the ifth when I am obliged to spend this
fete-day, so solemn for me, away from the two persons
who are dearest to me ! I ask your forgiveness for thus
telling you of my sad thoughts, but friendship and the
interest you have always shown in me embolden me to
do so, on condition that you tell me if I bore you. . . .

" LOUISE."

UP.S. — I have just received a letter from Parma that
informs me that M. Marescalchi has a successor in M.
Magawly, who has upset all the Provisional Government.
M. Marescalchi is no longer anything but the minister of
Austria at my Court ; my father has also appointed
M. de San Vitale to be my Grand Chamberlain, and all
that without consulting me. This hurts and annoys
me. M. Magawly has said at Parma that my father
has sent for M. de San Vitale to Vienna to take up his
appointment, and that I shall be requested to come to
Vienna during all the time of the Congress. What a
sad outlook ! I am tempted to ask him to allow me

37° An Imperial Victim

to pass the winter at Florence, promising only to write
to the Emperor vice the Grand-duke ; but it seems certain
that he will refuse me. What I have determined is
not to go to Vienna during the time the sovereigns are
there. Advise me, I beg you, for I assure you that I
am very much to be pitied."

The question is if the depression in this letter is
entirely due to the Parma worries. May it not have
been caused by Marie Louise feeling that she was
struggling hopelessly in the meshes of Neipperg's net ?
Bausset, indeed, implies in his Memoirs that their liaison
began at Aix; but he was writing after he had turned
his coat and was ready to cast any aspersion on his former
Empress. It seems to us, however, that Marie Louise's
letters are those of a woman still only tempted, but
fearful lest she should be unable much longer to resist.

Though politics were the chief reason for keeping Marie
Louise as yet away from Parma, her new dominions were
not by any means ready for her reception.

When, at the beginning of 1814, Napoleon's king-
dom of Italy, in consequence of Murat's treachery, began
to fall away from him, the allied troops under General
Nugent, commanding the Austro-British force on the
right of the Po, had entered Parma amidst the enthusiastic
acclamation of the inhabitants. On the 6th Count
Strassoldi, Austrian governor of Milan, issued an edict
appointing a Provisional Government, with Count Fernando
Marescalchi, high up in the Austrian service, as Imperial
commissioner. The government consisted of Count
Stefano Sanvitale, Mistrali, who had been secretary to
the maire and had been considered by the French
as a tete forte^ and Count Filippo Magawly-Cerati — an
excellent triumvirate.

Magawly — Italianized Macaulay ? — was a clever young

The Second Sacrifice 371

Irishman, the son of a count of the Holy Roman
Empire of that name in the King's County. The family,
old and rich, had become poor owing to religious troubles
in Ireland, when Count Patrick succeeded to the estates
of a branch settled in Parma. He died young and his
widow sent her eldest son Filippo and his brother to
Parma, where Duke Fernando wished to educate them
as a compensation for wrongs done to the family. He
died a few days after their arrival, but the trustees of
the estates placed the two lads at the Lalatta College, and
when their education was finished they remained at Parma.
Both had Irish vivacity and shrewdness ; Filippo had
specially charming, well-bred manners, and, in addition, was
an uncommonly good-looking youth, whom every one
liked and esteemed. In 1808 he married the Contessina
Chiera, only daughter and heiress of Conte Cerati, whose
name he added to his own when she succeeded to her
father's property. Magawly-Cerati was well thought
of by the Napoleonic Government for his cleverness,
holding several offices under it, and when appointed to the
Provisional Government he showed aptitude and zeal in
affairs. Pio VII., when he passed through Parma on his
return to Rome selected the clever young Irishman — he
was only twenty-seven — as his representative at the forth-
coming Congress to be held at Vienna. At the Austrian
capital Magawly came under the notice of the Kaiser,
who had already received reports from him, both when
at Paris and during the campaign, upon the condition of
Parma. Franz was very interested in the Duchy ; he
desired to arrange it so that his favourite daughter
should be happy there and make her subjects happy too.
He was pleased with the young Irishman's frank manners
and self-confidence, and their long conversations convinced
him of Magawly's quick judgment in politics as well as
of his diplomatic prudence. Magawly described to the

37 2 An Imperial Victim

Kaiser what the old administration at Parma had been,
and made suggestions as to how it should be restored
without yielding to the reactionary tendencies of those
who thought that everything was bad which had been
done under Napoleon's new notions.

Meanwhile Marescalchi was not progressing comfort-
ably as commissioner at Parma. The agent Capprei, sent
by the Empress to report upon the country, had been
badly received by the Austrian troops, who treated Parma
as if it was a conquered country, and was thrown into
prison till Marie Louise obtained his release. Marescalchi
found himself, he wrote to Meneval, " in a very
difficult situation. I arrived to find everything already
arranged and with a system and measures which are
totally above the strength of the country. But what
horrifies me is the actual disorder in which the govern-
ment is. The garrison, which we have to keep at our
expense, absorbs almost all the money which comes
into the Treasury, and the expense is so great that,
not being able to meet it by what is raised, the national
debt increases daily, and those who contribute, or who are
obliged to give in victuals and lodging, cry for help,
without which they will have to give up.

"Thus deprived of means, the taxpayers find it
impossible to pay the taxes, the wheel only turns very
slowly, and the country has no resources of any kind.

" The object which concerns me most at this moment
is the reduction of the garrison, or, at least, the placing
of it on a peace footing, as has already been done in
Lombardy at the beginning of this month. I have
demonstrated the necessity of this to His Majesty the
Emperor and His Highness Prince Metternich. If the
Empress is still at Vienna, speak to her about it ; other-
wise, if she comes here, my dear Meneval, she will
have nothing to live upon.

The Second Sacrifice 373

" I am taking advantage of General Nugent's de-
parture to get a letter through to you as soon as possible ;
but here is another misfortune. The posts are delayed,
so that to get a letter from Vienna takes at least a
month.

" I have informed you that we are entirely without
plate and linen ; but this is another business, on which I
must have Her Majesty's wishes. Besides two old state
coaches, we have nothing here for the Empress's use —
no carriages nor horses ; and if I have to get carriages
for her that will be another bother, and you must write
to me about it at once. Neither at Parma, nor at Milan,
is anything used but little diligences, or else country carts
without seats. So it will be difficult to buy or get
any ; perhaps, even, I should have to order them to be
made.

" Good-bye, I am going to work ; my ante-room is
full of creditors — clergy whose salaries have not been
paid for a year, magistrates who have not been paid for
three months, caterers who are ruined. Altogether it is
chaos, and I do not think I am making game of you. If
1 succeed in settling this business, you can put up a
statue to me."

Poor Marescalchi, as we have seen in his mistress's
letter, had not earned his memorial. For Franz, by a
decree of July 27, revoked the Provisional Government,
and made Magawly regent. The latter accepted office
really more to please the Kaiser than for self-advancement.
By the beginning of August Magawly was back at Parma
from Vienna with unlimited powers, only he was to
report every month to the Kaiser. Marescalchi was the
Imperial Commissioner, but only to administer high
politics and Austrian affairs.

Magawly brought in his pocket 50,000 francs for
the poor, to set up a Mont de Piete ; but he brought

374 An Imperial Victim

also the new system of government devised by the Kaiser
and himself. It was to be absolute, but not despotic.
Paternal laws were to emanate from the Sovereign, who
was to be surrounded by a chief minister and high
officials ; the best of the Napoleonic administration was
to be retained ; agriculture especially was to be fostered,
and equal and merciful justice meted out. From the
correspondence which passed between him and Magawly
it is seen that Franz wished to make the Government of
Parma the best, within the limits of absolutism, of any
in Italy, surpassing even that of Vienna or anything that
was thought good enough for Lombardy. On the other
hand, Magawly, overstepping the limits set by his master,
tried to retain the greater part of the institutions of the
French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Governments.
Franz let it pass because he did not wish the wife of
Napoleon to undo in her little State all that Napoleon
had done for the benefit of the people. In this he differed
from the other Italian princes who had returned to their
kingdoms, and who voluntarily closed their eyes to all
the good that had accrued from the meteor passage of
Bonaparte.

Magawly divided the Duchy into three governorships —
Parma, Piacenza, Guastalla. These were to be under
the orders of himself, as minister under the orders of the
Duchess ; a Council of State to decide Government
affairs ; in each of the three governorships a Council ; a
special council for direct contributions ; a general comp-
troller for indirect contributions ; in each commune a
judge and a council ; a comptroller for state property and
the ducal household ; an officer in charge of irrigation,
bridges, causeways ; in each centre a juge de paix ; in
each governorship a civil and criminal court ; one court
of appeal for civil causes and correction, divided into two
sessions, forming together one court of cassation.

The Second Sacrifice 375

Magawly had suggested Mistrali as Governor of
Guastalla. On the 6th, two days after his return from
Vienna, the new Government was proclaimed, and all the
new officials took oath to Marie Louise.

She sent Bausset to Parma to spy out the land. He
reached Parma in fear and trembling of suffering the fate
of Sieur Capprei ; he found a great upset had taken
place in the Government.

" And all this has been done," he wrote to MeneVal,
" without the least preliminary communication having
been made to our loyal Marescalchi. The visit of his
successor informed him of the change in his position,
and I found him still sore over his disappointment.
No one had better intentions, but he could not bring
himself to deal great blows. All the Provisional is down,
but the discontented are augmented by it. Marescalchi
told me of a part of the new instructions which have been
sent to him in his new post as minister of Austria at
the court of Parma. In these an extreme severity is
exercised over everything that can concern France, and
he is enjoined not to suffer the presence of any French-
man in the States of Parma, unless he be of those who
accompany the Empress, and they again warn him most
strongly to keep great watch on everything that regards
the island of Elba. . . . Orders also to send the fifty-
five Poles to their own country if they will not enroll
themselves in the Austrian army. As there is three
months' pay owing to them, these orders demand a fresh
reply from Vienna. Perhaps Her Majesty the Empress
may be able to obtain leave from her father that she may
keep them in her service, which they much desire.

" The clause of the Constitution which lays down that
no foreigners may be employed in the Government does
not concern Frenchmen attached to the Empress's suite,
and, rather a remarkable thing, the new Prime Minister

376 An Imperial Victim

is a fellow-countryman of my wife, and born in Ireland —
first infraction ; moreover, the Sieur Abbe Communsard,
new Councillor of State, is also Irish-born. As you see,
these are arrangements with Heaven. One cannot hide
from oneself the real advantages of the changes made in
the Government of Parma. A great economy in the
political machinery must necessarily result, and, on the
other hand, a reversion of favour will be to the advantage
of Her Majesty, who has become a refuge for some and
a hope for all who, being suppressed, flatter themselves
that they are going to be re-employed.

" I have been very well received in this country.
They are grateful to me for not shutting my door to
any one, not even to the very numerous scullions of the
old dukes. I am busying myself preparing everything
that is necessary for the household. The disorder is
great, the resources are nil ; for the Regency, not content
with the enormous debts that you are aware of, has
had the extreme kindness to mortgage the private
domains of the Crown till the end of November.

Cc Her Majesty expects to come here soon, my dear
Meneval ; I can hardly believe that her father will consent
to it. To judge by the political clouds which hover over
the opening of the Congress of Vienna, it is probable that
Italy may not be very quiet. The King of Naples is very
active. He has a splendid army, a treasury full to the
rim, and his forces have been remarkably increased
by deserters of nearly all the old army of Italy, who
have entered his service. People are grumbling under
their breath, and, I tell you the same between ourselves,
that he has designs on the States of Bologna, and that,
at the present moment, he is busy reviewing his troops
on the frontiers of the three legations*

" This land is dull, the women not very pretty. The

The Second Sacrifice 377

climate is burning, the opera second-rate, the palace very
old ; but I am busy arranging the Palace of the Garden
for her Majesty's reception. For some thousands of
francs she will have a fine palace, quite detached.

" Have you heard in your town that they are con-
sidering at the Congress an exchange of the Duchies
of Parma with the three Legations — Bologna, Ferrara,
and Ravenna ? The Emperor of Austria talked in that
way to Marescalchi, always understood that the projects
of his Neapolitan Majesty are reduced to their proper
value. From all this one must conclude that the fate of
Her Majesty is uncertain, that her journey, in spite
of her wishes, is still far off, and that probably we are
still fated to go and taste the ineffable joys of the sojourn
at Schonbriinn. The will of God be done ! I am for
ever devoted to the service of Her Majesty, and shall
remain faithful to her everywhere and through every-
thing. The Emperor of Austria has appointed the Conte
di San Vitale to be her Grand Chamberlain. That is
a piece of news she only heard through me.

c* I was forgetting to tell you that the palace of
Colorno is fine, in good repair, and practically furnished.
It is not the same with the other old palaces ; there
the walls are hardly standing !

"BAUSSET."

To add to the sadness of August 15, so different to
the fete-day of the two Napoleons for the four last years,
came a letter from Metternich to the little villa at Aix,
where Marie Louise sat distraught, only the Duchesse
of all her old friends near her, and she going away
in two days, leaving her with the power of Neipperg
closing over her, the fascination of this strong, dangerous
man paralysing her conscience and will, as the python
stupefies its victim before it kills it. A*

378 An Imperial Victim

Metternich's letter was courteous, evasive, and
treacherous.

" MADAME,

" Assured of the feelings, of the confidence
with which Your Imperial Majesty has deigned on so
many occasions to give me flattering proofs, I address
myself directly to Your Majesty in circumstances of
infinite importance for her and her son.

" Your Majesty intends to go to Parma at the begin-
ning of September. The Emperor, her august father,
is preparing to write to her to dissuade her from the
journey at this present moment. I take the respectful
liberty of showing her how impossible it is.

" The presence of Your Majesty at Parma before
the end of the Congress would put her in a state of
perpetual compromise. It would be, in my private
opinion, even possible that it would be prejudicial to her
possession of the Duchy. The branch of the house of
Bourbon, formerly in possession of Parma, is very active ;
it has much support in France, in Spain. The least
trouble in Italy might be more favourable to it than it is
possible to foresee at this moment, and, in the proximity
of provinces provisionally administered, might complicate
matters extremely. Thus the royalist and the Jacobin
parties might draw a direct advantage from a step for
which there is no apparent use. The Emperor has given
orders to relieve the Parmesan territory as much as
possible by reducing the number of troops which weigh
it down ; some are necessary to maintain public order,
until the time of the permanent organization, and it
is only then that Your Majesty can go and take possession
of her domains.

" Let Your Majesty rely on my way of regarding
this question. Full of the most eager interest in her,

The Second Sacrifice

379

I should not be fulfilling a duty I consider sacred if I
did not point out to her, with all the candidness of my
character, the importance of her deigning to return
here, of understanding the real position of affairs in her
dominions, and that, at the end of the Congress, which
will not be prolonged beyond the end of the month of
November, she can betake herself to her States in full
and complete security.

" Deign, madame, to receive the homage of my
most profound respect.

" METTERNICH."

At first Marie Louise was crushed by this reply,
which she accepted as a command, but which did not
deceive even her. How impossible it was that the
Congress, with all its web of conflicting interests to un-
ravel, could be over in six weeks, no one knew better
than Metternich. Had she not heard that Parma was
peaceful, the government in working order, and all
without the cognizance or orders of its sovereign ?

The truth was, as we have seen in Bausset's letter,
that King Joachim Murat was by no means quiescent
in Naples. Austria and England were willing that he
should continue to enjoy the fruits of his treachery to
his benefactor and brother-in-law. But Talleyrand saw,
in the presence on the throne of Naples of one who had
been, and might still be at heart, a creature of Napoleon's,
a menace to the peace of Italy, if not of Europe. If
to Murat at Naples, and Napoleon at Elba, were added
Marie Louise and her son in Parma, might not Italy
become the focus of a Bonapartist movement which might
envelop Europe ? For the present the Allies were
therefore insistent that the Empress should hold aloof,
and Parma remain under the iron hand of Austria.

But Marie Louise, no politician, did not grasp this.

380 An Imperial Victim

Neipperg encouraged her in her hankering for Parma,
independence, and peace. He was no longer young ; he
had had enough of fighting ; the position of a Prince-
Consort in a snug little independent kingdom, with an
attractive young ruler, was a prospect not unpleasing to
the wily diplomatist.

In the evening of the day she received Metternich's
letter, Marie Louise poured out her soul to Meneval :

" I have just received your letter of August 9. I
am really troubled at the long time ; one receives very
old news. I send you a copy of a letter of Prince
Metternich, which will inform you of the news which
M. de Karaczai has brought back. I am very unhappy
at the idea of being obliged to return to Vienna, all the
more because they have given me no good reason. I
do not mean to go to Vienna before the end of September
or the beginning of October. I shall leave here 3rd or
4th of September, and I shall go to Geneva, and thence
to Berne, where I shall stay a fortnight, and a week in
the first town ; after that 1 shall go to Vienna. ... If
you come and share my exile, I feel how very painful it
will be to you, but, at the same time, I am too selfish
not to wish it. I need your advice, to talk to you ;
you know all the trust I have in you, and one of the
pleasantest thoughts I can dwell on at this moment is
to keep you with me. . . . The Duchesse de Montebello
will tell you many things verbally which I cannot write
to you, for I am very sad, though quite resigned. It is
to-morrow that I shall be dealt the severest blow of all,
that of saying good-bye to the Duchesse ; but I do not
pity myself — I should be accustomed to all possible
misfortune. What comforts me is to think that there
are still kind people sorry for me, and I am pleased to
think that you are one."

The Comtesse de Brignole felt as did her mistress,

The Second Sacrifice 381

and sent a letter in the same terms to Meneval by Dr.
Corvisart, who followed his friend the Duchesse to Paris :

" Nothing has altered since her [Montebello's] de-
parture. The Empress seems to wish for you very
much, and, to speak candidly, I think that, if your
affairs do not suffer too much, you would do well to
come, for you could be useful to her. You know that
everything is being done at Parma without her, but in
her name. A Grand Chamberlain has been appointed,
who is to go to Vienna to take up his duties with his
new sovereign. All things considered, I am certain that
she will have Parma, but I cannot tell when she will be
settled there. We shall be at SchSnbriinn on October 1 5 ;
till then we shall make excursions in beautiful Switzer-
land. I had suggested to Her Majesty to allow me to
await her return in Italy, but she seems to desire that
I should stay with her, and I have no other will, as you
know. . . . The new Constitution excludes, by a special
clause, all foreigners from employment in the govern-
ment of Parma. The extreme pliableness of the Empress
may lead to this measure affecting even her household.
God grant a fresh war may not upset everything ! They
say the Congress will not last long.

" A thousand remembrances to Madame de Meneval.
If you have a safe opportunity, write to me and tell my
good Douglas of it. The best of all would be yourself ;
but I fear that this will seem to you selfishness, and you
will not be wrong. The person to whom you wrote on
your departure is well, and behaves reasonably. I add
that she makes much of you. . . . Give me news and
particulars of yourself and your children. Do not neglect
your own interests in Paris, but try and come back to us
very quickly."

Madame de Brignole undoubtedly referred to the
Empress. She was far too clever not to see how she was

3 82 An Imperial Victim

drifting, but, born intriguer though she was, she may yet
have had a conscience, which led her to warn Meneval
before matters had gone too far.

At this moment Neipperg took a step which can only
be construed by considering him a past-master in the art
of love-making. Reculer pour mieux sauter, was his line.
He wrote to the Kaiser asking leave to give up his post
and rejoin his division at Pavia, showing that his appoint-
ment, which was only to last while the Empress was on
French soil, now came to an end, as she was leaving it.
But his request was refused ; Neipperg had now become
indispensable both to Marie Louise and to Austria. For,
a few weeks later, the French ambassador at Vienna wrote
to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Paris that Neipperg
was confirmed in his office of gaoler to the Empress :

" I do not know if you are aware that M. le Comte
Neipperg has been given by the Emperor of Austria as
surveillant to the Archduchess Marie Louise, whom he has
to warn not to do anything that could injure, or even
displease the King, but especially that he may narrowly
watch the Archduchess in case she wishes to go and rejoin
her husband, and then, after persuasion, to forbid her
absolutely if she persists."

At this moment Napoleon wrote again to his wife.
By different channels he made four different attempts
during these weeks to reach her, telling her he expected
her at the end of September. He was hurrying on the
decoration of her apartments at San Martino, himself
suggesting to the artist a symbolical design for the
drawing-room ceiling : " two doves, tied by the same
ribbon, the knot of which tightens as they draw farther
apart.'1 He begs for more frequent news, asking her to
write to him " under the name of M. Senno, and to
address letters to Genoa under cover to Sieur Constantine
Gatelli," a Genoese merchant, with whom " he had to d

383

The Second Sacrifice 385

business about his poultry-yard and herd of cows at
San Martino."

Marie Louise hastened to tell Meneval of this letter,
while thanking him for his offer to follow her anywhere
and under all circumstances, and hoping to see him again
very soon.

" I wish you might arrange so as to be deprived of
the society of Madame de Meneval for as short a time
as possible. I feel how sad that would be, and I fear she
will end by owing me a grudge.

" I have replied to my father as well as to Prince
Metternich. I flattered the latter up as to the trust I
had in him, and I especially dwelt on the satisfaction I
experienced in the promise he gave me that I should soon
go to Parma. It appears that M. Magawly is making
many wise changes there, and is reforming many of the
abuses of the Provisional Government. I have received
a long letter from M. de Bausset. ... I have received
news of the Emperor of August 6. He says many kind
things about you to me, and recommends me not to
believe all that people may say against him. He was
well, was happy, peaceful, and thinking especially a great
deal about me and his son. ... I beg you to remember
me kindly to Madame de Meneval. ... I hope that I
shall soon hear of her happy delivery, and I warn you
that I wish to be the godmother of the child."

One cannot but notice, in this letter, how completely
Napoleon takes the second place in her thoughts. Marie
Louise pities herself first and foremost for not being
allowed to go to Parma, and then only gives a thought
to the prisoner-husband to whose call she was shutting
her ears. Yet it was only eight months since they had
parted.

Love makes people selfish — to all but the loved one.
Now Marie Louise was naturally selfish. One day she
1—23

386 An Imperial Victim

told Napoleon that she was, and he replied : " It is the
most horrible vice I know ! "

Her next letter to Meneval shows her in that light,
butterfly mood which was so attractive.

" Here is the time approaching when I may hope to
have the pleasure of seeing you again. I am eagerly
awaiting it ; you know how much I need your advice.
A presentiment tells me that I shall see you again at
Geneva. I am impatiently waiting for the journal of the
tour you tell me about. I will not read it, however,
before finishing mine. I am sure it is so well done that
I shall be quite disgusted with my work if I make
acquaintance with it at once. I am sure, also, that you
will exclaim at my indolence, when you hear that I am
still at the foot of the Glacier des Boissons. I fear that
one of its numerous icicles has frozen my imagination,
for when I wish to set to work I feel completely dis-
couraged. However, I shall finish it before I leave here,
because I intend to write one of my tour in Switzerland.
My health has been rather upset the last few days. I
have had five attacks of fever, which have obliged me
to discontinue my baths. I shall begin them again
to-morrow till the 5th, and then I shall leave on the
4th (sic). I do not go for such long excursions. I swore
to the doctors not to stay out so late, and I keep
scrupulously to my word." And then follows a message
to the Duchesse about sending her a hairdresser.

A few days later she wrote again thanking him for
his wishes on her fete-day. She " was sure that they
are among the most sincere that have been made for
me. I am much touched by your willingness to follow
me to Vienna ; believe me that I have vowed to you
a gratitude proof to all temptations, for you know you
won my friendship a long time ago. I shall not
reply to you by this channel, for the post is not very

The Second Sacrifice 387

sure. I hope at least they will be civil enough to send
my letters to their destination after reading them. My
health is much better ; I still take the baths, which suit
me very well, and I hope you will find me fatter. . . .
I shall hasten to read to-day your journal of the
Chamounix tour ; I am sure it will be charming. I
worked at mine a little yesterday, but it has not got on
much ; I fear it will not be finished before your return ;
besides, yours will discourage me."

After the departure of the Duchesse de Montebello,
Marie Louise missed her so that she did not wish to stay
on at Aix any longer. She wanted, moreover, a change,
and fresh excitement to stifle her conscience and drown
her worries.

The politicians were also anxious that the Empress
should quit French soil. The air was full of Bonapartist
plotting ; Fouch£ had sent emissaries to Aix ; perhaps
even Corvisart and Isabey had been sounding her as to
a regency. In any case the French Government began to
take cognizance of her stay at Aix. At the Ministerial
Council on August 5 the Due de Berri said that " Marie
Louise behaves at Aix in the most ridiculous manner ;
that she does not take the waters, and spends her days
surrounded by French officials."

On August 9 Talleyrand wrote to Metternich " that,
the course of baths having been quite finished for Madame
the Archduchess, it was more convenient that her stay be
not prolonged."

" Although," wrote Neipperg to the Kaiser, "the
French Government seemed latterly pacified about our
stay here, they are nevertheless glad over our speedy
departure."

CHAPTER XXI

AN ILLICIT HONEYMOON?

THE French Government, as will be seen, had dis-
quieted itself quite unnecessarily.

On August 20 Napoleon, who had been ten days
without any news of Marie Louise, and who was anxious,
determined to try to establish direct communication
with her. From Molini he sent for a captain of the
guards, Hurault de Sorbec, whom he had married to one
of the Empress's dames cTannonce. To him he explained
that he wished to give him leave of absence to see his
young wife, and that, at all risks, he was to gain access
to the Empress secretly, and, with his wife's help, persuade
her to embark with him at Genoa.

Hurault reached Geneva, where Marie Louise had
arrived on September 7. His efforts to get into per-
sonal communication with the Empress, or to obtain a
reply from her, entirely failed. He was arrested, headed
off towards Paris, and forbidden by the police to return
to Elba.

Marie Louise wrote straight off to the Kaiser detail-
ing what had happened. " I have received the visit of
an officer of the Emperor's, the bearer of a letter in which
he told me to leave at once for Elba, where he awaits me
with much impatience. In a week this is the second
officer I have received. By the first (it was Colonel
Laczinsky) I replied that I was to return to Vienna in a

388

An Illicit Honeymoon ? 389

few days, and that it would be impossible for me, without
your permission, to leave for the island ; to the second
letter, that of Captain Hurault, I have not yet replied. I
tell you all this, dear papa, because 1 place confidence in
you and I do not wish all these stories to give you any
distrust of what I do. Rest assured that I have now less
than ever the wish to undertake this journey, and that I
give you my word of honour not to undertake it without
asking your leave. I beg you to tell me what I should
reply to the Emperor on this subject."

Hurault was arrested the evening that Men£val
reached Geneva from Paris to rejoin the Empress. He
was unaware of it till after the short interview he had
with her on arrival. tc I received an extremely friendly
welcome from Her Majesty," he writes to his wife that
evening. " She seemed very touched to see me back
again. I found her fatter, and in perfect health. More-
over, she seemed very happy and contented. She told
me M. Hurault had been given a letter from her to you
in which she begged you to receive some papers she was
sending back to me. So if you see him, he will, perhaps,
speak to you about his mission, which was to bring the
Empress back to Elba ; but he found some one very little
prepared to follow him. . . . When I face the greatness of
the sacrifice I have made, and the little good it will do, I
am tempted to turn back and not to follow the Empress.
Generally such sacrifices are only appreciated in propor-
tion as they fit in with circumstances. God grant I may
not have to regret mine. . . . But I cannot help thinking
that it is an unpleasant risk to run."

Indeed poor M£neval had left his home and his
family to find that he was not wanted. No wonder there
is a distinct change and a sort of despair in his tone.
For Marie Louise ordered him to meet her at Berne
after a short tour she was about to make in the Oberland,

39° An Imperial Victim

and started off next day with only the Comtesse de
Brignole, Neipperg, his aide-de-camp Karaczai, Bausset,
Cussy, Madame Hurault and Mademoiselle Rabusson,
lectrices, and a couple of other subordinates.

They drove from "Les Secherons" to Lausanne, where
they slept, and next day went on to Payenne. About an
hour before reaching that place, writes Bausset, " Madame
di Colorno stopped her carriage to hear a little patriarchal
serenade which was offered her by the Protestant pasteur
of Payenne, who had placed himself on the edge of the
wood of Boulez. The songs of this worthy man were
accompanied by his two daughters, who played, one on
the violin and one on the flute. After this little family
concert they offered Her Majesty fruit and flowers. The
brother of these two girls, dressed in the old Helvetian
costume and standing on the edge of the wood, sang the
4 Ranz des Vaches ! * The young man had a very fine
voice, and, to make the illusion more complete, he caressed
with his hands two extremely beautiful cows. This little
impromptu fete-champetre was a complete success," and
touched the Duchess of Colorno almost to tears.

Sleeping at Freiburg, the Empress reached Berne the
next day, the nth. Here she stayed the night and left
behind Bausset, who was joined next day by Meneval.
"M. de Men6val," says the grand maitre, " had seen enough
snow in the Russian steppes, and we did not care to go
running about the mountains covered with it." But the
Empress had left a note for her secretary. " She suggested
to me to come and join her, in case it -pleased me, and desiring
me to do what suited me best. You think, perhaps," he adds
to his wife, " that I shall start off, but I will confess to
you that I am not at all disposed to do so. To tell you
the reasons would be too long and too difficult to explain in
a letter which will be submitted to the inquisition^ and of
which each word would be misinterpreted. Her Majesty

An Illicit Honeymoon? 391

has not a French person in her suite. She has left
Bausset and Cussy at Berne. If she wanted to have
me with her she would have waited for me, for she
intended to stop a day to rest at Berne. Otherwise, the
protestations of friendship, the praises to every one over
my returning to her, accompanied by compliments, really
astonish me ! "

This sudden change of attitude to the faithful old
friend whom Marie Louise had deemed so indispensable
requires explanation. This sudden leaving behind of
Meneval and Bausset and Cussy must have had a motive.
Ostensibly that motive was that they should assist at the
marriage at Berne of Mile de Rabusson, long engaged to
Dr. Herceau, now the Empress's private physician.
Mile de Rabusson was one of the lectrices^ or dames
d'annonce^ who had accompanied the Empress when she
left France. From her subsequent conduct at Schonbrttnn
there is reason to believe that she was the go-between
for Neipperg and Marie Louise.

Meneval, in his letters to his wife, seems to hint that
something had occurred, and that he did not find things
with the Empress as he had left them. We have seen
how, just before starting for the Oberland, she had
utterly declined any emissaries or any overtures from
Napoleon, that in her letter to her father she seems to
have irrevocably broken with him. Can the following
account of what had been happening at Elba only a few
days before Marie Louise left Aix offer any solution of
the mystery ?

On the highest point of the island of Elba, Monte
Capanna, 2,400 feet above the sea, by the chapel of the
Madonna del Monte, hung with votive offerings, lies,
among the old chestnut-trees, a little house of five rooms
called " The Hermitage." Beyond the castle of Marciana
the carriage road ceases, and only a paved mule-path,

392 An Imperial Victim

flanked here and there by a shrine, leads to the summit.
From the windows of the Hermitage you can see Corsica,
Livorno, Piombino. In the rock behind there are three
springs. On the crest of the mountain blaze beacon-fires
when necessary. In the autumn of 1814 the Hermitage
became the last scene of a pathetic idyll.

" The ist of September, 1814, Napoleon had spent part
of the day on the height of Pomonte, in the Isle of Elba,
seeking, with the aid of a telescope, to descry and recognize
any shipping which appeared on the horizon. As night
fell the Emperor, returning to the house he occupied,
ordered three horses to be saddled, to be taken to a certain
place which he designated, and there to await the orders
of the Grand Marshal. The officer ordered on this duty
reached the appointed spot at ten o'clock with the carriage
and horses. It was a beautiful, moonlit night. At this
moment a boat was being rowed towards the mole. Three
ladies and a child, who were in the boat, landed. General
Bertrand saluted them respectfully and helped them into
the carriage. They started, and at the cross-roads of
Proachia they met Napoleon, who was mounted on a white
horse and followed by a troop of lancers and Mamelukes.
The carriage stopped. The Emperor dismounted and
opened the right-hand door, and got in alone amid a pro-
found silence. They started off again, and quickly reached
the cross-roads of Proachia. At this spot the carriage,
not being able to go any farther on account of the bad
road, the Emperor, the ladies and the child, got out and
mounted the horses brought by the orderly officer. The
child was in the arms of one lady, and the officer, who was
on foot, led her horse by the bridle. When they got
near the Hermitage Napoleon spurred on the two horses
and reached it a few moments before the procession. A
tent had been put up under a big chestnut-tree. The
lady and the child came up to them after a few minutes

An Illicit Honeymoon? 393

and went with him into the tent. The fair unknown
remained there two days and two nights without showing
herself. Napoleon only emerged twice to give orders.
During that time all access to the heights was prohibited
to every one, even to Madame Mere, who was staying in
a village near."

On September 3 the fair unknown left the island
as mysteriously as she came, and went to Naples, bearing
a message for Murat.

The rumour of this mysterious visitor spread, of
course, through the island and reached the mainland.
Reported by an Italian officer of Napoleon's to a French
spy, it was bruited about that the Empress and her son
had been to Elba. The Florence director of police wrote
" that the Empress came from Porto Maurizo, and really
arrived under the name of Countess Poniatowski," with
a little boy dressed in Polish fashion. But while Lapi,
the English Commissary, and also comptroller to the
Emperor's estates in the island, did not believe the
visitor to be indeed Marie Louise, a few weeks later
the British Consul at Livorno gravely informed the British
Government that the Empress was enceinte in consequence
of her visit to the island !

But had Napoleon, on receiving Marie Louise's refusal
to rejoin him, bethought him of the Comtesse Walewska,
of her coming to Fontainebleau at the moment of his
deepest misery, and imploring him to take her with him
to Elba ? Had he now, forsaken by Marie Louise, sent
for her and her son ? If so, the news of her visit had
probably reached Neipperg, and he had used his know-
ledge as his trump card, and completed Marie Louise's
ruin by divulging her husband's infidelity. Lady Burg-
hersh, the confidante of Marie Louise, used to say,
writes her daughter, "that none of Napoleon's letters
were allowed to reach her [the Empress], and that she was

394 An Imperial Victim

told the reason of his silence was that he did not want
her — that Madame Walewska, the woman he really cared
for, had joined him there, and that, as he had only wanted
her to strengthen his dynasty and to be a figurehead at his
Court, she would be only in his way if she went to Elba."

In any case, in addition to the Walewska visit, there
was in December that of a certain notorious adventuress
calling herself Comtesse de Rohan, and she was received
by the Emperor.

Accompanied only by Madame de Brignole and the
general, the Empress spent ten days in the Oberland,
visiting the glaciers of Grindelwald, the falls of Lauter-
brunnen, and, with much interest, the great charitable,
educational, and agricultural establishments at Hofwil,
near Berne. Well-educated herself, Marie Louise took an
interest in such matters, and Napoleon had encouraged her.

When he met the Empress again at Berne M6neval
found her " in perfect health, fat and crimson, delighted
with her tour, which had been most arduous, as those said
who had accompanied her, but which she had not found
fatiguing. Having seen me arrive with M. de Cussy, she
came to meet me at Madame de Brignole's, where she had
been told I was. She carried me off to her rooms, and
said the pleasantest and kindest things to me — in fact, was
charming. She talked to me for two hours about business
affairs, spoke of you, and how she shared your sorrow, of
the gratitude she owed you, of the wish she had to keep
you near her, and to make you one of her best friends."

The first news which greeted Marie Louise on her
return to Berne was that of the death of her beloved
grandmother. The brave old lady had died, as it were,
in harness, going to bed in perfect health and being found
dead in the morning, her hand vainly stretched towards
the bell-rope. Here was yet another prop which Marie
Louise would find removed when she returned to Vienna !

An Illicit Honeymoon ? 395

She felt her grandmother's death very much and shut
herself up for two days.

But an unexpected visitor came to distract her in the
shape of Caroline, Princess of Wales, who, in her wander-
ings about Europe " like a madwoman " — as the Bishop
Horthosia wrote to Talleyrand — happened at that moment
to find herself at Berne. As she was the wife of the
Regent of one of the countries whose arms had overthrown
Napoleon, any recognition of Caroline by Marie Louise
was distinctly unnecessary and not in the best of tastes.
Yet when the former sent her chamberlain, Lord Craven
to pay his respects, the Empress, in return, despatched
Bausset to invite her to dinner. Probably she was in-
stigated thereto by Neipperg, who thought the rencontre
would amuse her.

Bausset found a woman of forty-six, of medium
height, with regular and pronounced features, and a
pleasant and expressive countenance. She wore an ample
dress of white muslin trimmed with lace and had a long
lace veil falling over her shoulders. A row of diamonds
was set on the veil like a diadem, and a magnificent pearl
necklace was round her neck. She looked like an ancient
Greek priestess. u She held by the hand a child of ten to
eleven years of age/' "This is my protege," she told
him ; " it is the Austin who has been mentioned in those
Memoirs which have been attributed to me."

Caroline was accompanied by a lady-in-waiting, Lady
Forbes, as odd a figure as her mistress, by Lord Craven,
and Gill, chamberlains, Captain Hesse, her equerry, and
a Dr. Holland. Meneval and Bausset both describe the
dinner-party.

" We had to dine yesterday the Princess of Wales,
who kept the newspapers so busy two years ago. She is
a woman of forty to forty-five, small and fat, with a very
fine head, but eyes which bear witness to some of her love-

396 An Imperial Victim

affairs real and supposititious. She is accompanied by a
lady-in-waiting and four officers. She is going to Rome,
where she intends to spend the winter. I was pleased to
find myself in the presence of this Princess, quite historical
by reason of the scandal which the English made in Europe
over her and the Prince Regent, her husband. The evening
was one of the gayest I have ever seen. We made music.
The Princess, who was asked to sing, consented. The
Empress spoke of the dread she had of singing before
people, but the Princess assured her that she had never
sung except to her friends. In consequence, she sang a
duet with her Majesty."

It was the famous duet out of Don Juan. Neipperg,
at the piano, made a preliminary flourish of chords and
runs, and Caroline, after the soft and melancholy pre-
lude, began, in a love-sick voice :

L&, nos deux mains unies,

La, tu vas dire Oui.
Par ces senders fleuris

Eloignons nous d'ici.

Zerlina, " in the sweetest and most naive inflexion,"
replied to Don Juan :

Je veux et puis je n'ose,

Le cceur me bat plus fort ;
L'ivresse qu'il me cause,

Me peut tromper encore.

Then Caroline responded, in a "masculine and sonorous

voice."

"To tell you the effect her voice had on me is
impossible ; I thought I should have choked. . . . The
Empress, behind whom I was standing, unfortunately
turned towards me in the middle of the song, and then —
good-bye to time, she had to leave off under some pretext,
for it was no longer possible to keep serious ! Otherwise
the Princess of Wales — apart from her ridiculous dress

An Illicit Honeymoon? 397

and appearance — looks an excellent woman, full of con-
descension and kindness, and putting every one at their
ease. She has with her the famous child who is so often
spoken of in the Memoirs, which, she assures every one, are
only fiction ; but she did not bring him with her to the
Empress. I saw him out walking yesterday ; he is about
twelve, and has a very pretty face. Her lady-in-waiting
has an appearance quite equal to that of her mistress.
She looks like a little doll badly got up. The officers are
very smart. The first is the son of a celebrated English-
woman, Lady Craven, who has married the Margrave of
Anspach. . . . But I am using up all my paper telling
you about a Princess who must interest you very little.
I must, however, say a word about her get-up. She was
swathed in ten yards of English lace, with a magnificent
necklace of pearls ; a veil like Iphigenia entirely covered
her and trained on the ground, hiding almost all her face,
and was kept on by a diadem of diamonds like the crowns
of opera-queens."

Despite the kindly welcome he had received, M6neval
was not happy at 'being back with Marie Louise. He
tried to obtain leave to return direct to Vienna, but she
begged him to accompany her on the little tour which she
planned on the lake of Lucerne.

" Never has she been nicer to me," he writes to his
wife, <c for she has suggested making me her chamberlain,
and you her lady-in-waiting. I quote this as a mark of
her kindness, as she has no power to make these appoint-
ments ; and, besides, they would only be temporary, and
the Congress will upset many things. I have therefore
nothing to complain of personally with regard to her, but
J cannot hide from myself that she is no longer that angel
of purity and innocence which I left. . . . Her mind is
not occupied as I should wish. You know my affectionate
devotion to her ; it has redoubled since I see her entering

39 ^ An Imperial Victim

on a road which will lead her to ruin. I would wish to
hide it from all the world, from you yourself. Therefore
keep what I say now to yourself. Whatever happens
to her, one must respect her for her rank, her valuable
good qualities, the gratitude which I owe for her kind-
nesses. She is full of good feelings, but she is surrounded
by shoals. . . . Her youth and inexperience need a guide
and a protector so much ! "

We now see that Meneval entertained no illusions as
to Marie Louise's conduct. He was shortly to find proofs
of it.

Bausset and Madame Hurault were sent with the
carriages to await the party at Linden, on the lake of
Constance ; Cussy went back to Paris. Only Neipperg,
his aide-de-camp, Brignole, the two Herceaus, and
Meneval went with the Empress to Lucerne on Sep-
tember 24. Next day they rowed down the lake to
the ruins of the castle of the Hapsburgs, landing in the
boat at the foot of the ruins. Among them, Neipperg,
with a cry of triumph, picked up a piece of iron, flat and
pointed, and which he pretended to recognize as a piece
of Rudolph's lance. This Marie Louse had set in rings
and gave to Madame de Brignole, Neipperg, Bausset, and
Meneval, as souvenirs of this romantic occasion.

At Kiisnach they landed and visited the chapel of
William Tell. They went up the Righi to the " Hotel
of the Golden Sun," then the only inn among some half-
dozen houses on the then lonely spot. Here the night
was spent, and, next day, the party ascended the Righi
Kulm in splendid weather, and had a fine view of the
magnificent panorama.

It was in this little inn that Meneval made the dis-
covery he suspected and dreaded. For some days, as we
have seen, he had been troubled by many little things
he had noticed. The Empress was no longer treated

An Illicit Honeymoon ? 399

with the ceremony and etiquette with which, as the
daughter of her father, she had always been surrounded.
That he put down to the freedom of travelling, and there
was nothing in it indecorous. But besides this there was
"a certain laxity of manner, permitted to one person only,"
which was quite another thing. Further, he noticed
in the Righi inn that a custom invariably observed had
been discontinued. It was a wooden house, arranged
with bedrooms on each side of the corridors, and which
did not communicate. The footman on duty, whose
business it was to sleep across the Empress's door, re-
ceived orders to sleep downstairs. In this present case
this arrangement might not have been convenient to the
Empress, who had no other exit to her room, yet this
infraction of an established rule was much commented on
by the persons of her suite.

Meneval writes to his wife that he was discussing it
with Madame de Brignole, " and, as I talked, I mechanically
unfolded a map of Switzerland which was on the table,
when a sealed note fell out, which I hastily picked up.
In handing it back to Madame de Brignole I recognized
the Empress's handwriting on the note, which was
addressed to General Neipperg."

Madame de Brignole seemed a little taken aback, and
said she had orders to give the map to General Neipperg,
and did not know a note was in it. Meneval did not
know whether to believe her or not. Surprised and
distressed, when they reached Schweitz next evening, he
asked the Empress's leave to return direct to Vienna,
alleging that important papers he had found awaiting him
at Schweitz necessitated his departure.

The Empress tried to dissuade him, civilly, but
eventually acceded to his request, and Meneval departed,
bearing her letter to her father for his fete-day on
October 4, which he was to deliver at Schonbrunn. His

4°° An Imperial Victim

sudden departure was, of course, a source of much gossip
among the Empress's surroundings.

She herself left Schweitz a few hours later, and, travel-
ling by way of St. Gall, across the lake of Constance, by
Munich to Braunau — where only four years before she
had been handed over to Napoleon's mission as the French
Empress — slept at Molk. Then, spending all night in
the carriage, she reached Sch6nbrttnn on October 7, to the
surprise of Meneval, who did not expect her so soon.

She found her boy flourishing, and delighted to see
her, loving and caressing. The Kaiser came at once alone
to see his daughter. A few days later, in gratitude for
the manner in which Neipperg had acquitted himself of his
mission (!) he appointed him chamberlain to the Duchess
of Parma during the Congress of Vienna !

Meneval, in a later judgment, writes : " The faults into
which Marie Louise fell must be imputed to those in
whose hands she has been an instrument of hatred and
vengeance. Her ties have been broken by the policy
which formed them."

Lord Holland writes that Franz was " never gentle
and benevolent. As for his daughter's marriage, one
must admit the alternative, either that he consented to
sacrifice his child to a cowardly policy, or that he cravenly
abandoned her, and dethroned a Prince he had chosen for
his son-in-law. He separated his daughter from the
husband he had given her, and helped to disinherit his
grandson. To obliterate from the mind of the daughter
the memory of her exiled and dethroned husband, whose
conduct to her had been irreproachable, they say he
encouraged, and even himself connived at making her
unfaithful."

END OF VOL. I

Printed by Haseli, Watson & Viney, Ld.t London and Aylesbury.

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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

DC Cuthell, Edith E.

An imperial victim
•2

C8

1911

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